358 
MESSRS. J. B. LAWES AND J. H. GILBERT ON THE RESULTS OF 
In the first year of the application of the mixed mineral manure instead of the 
nitrate, the plot assumed a lighter green colour, the grasses yielded more stem, 
matured better, and a greater number of them contributed to the bulk of the herbage. 
Festuca ovinci, which had greatly increased, and contributed a very large proportion to 
the produce under the influence of the nitrate, still maintained the first place, but 
in much diminished quantity. Holcus lanatus, and Agrostis vulgaris, became much 
more prominent, and several other grasses gained ground. The leguminous plants, 
which had almost disappeared, immediately increased on the application of the mixed 
mineral manure, including potass ; Lathyrus pratensis, as in other cases with the same 
manure, at once came forward. The number of miscellaneous species also increased; 
but the percentage by weight which they yielded to the produce was less, owing to 
the greatly increased and denser undergrowth of the grasses. 
With the changes in the description of the herbage, and the character of its develop¬ 
ment, due to the change in the manure, there is, so far, a diminution in the average 
produce of the first crops; but as second crops were removed from the land in 1875 
and 1877, the first crops of the three years 1876-77-78 would doubtless be affected 
by the consequent increased exhaustion. And, as a second crop was also taken in 
1878, and will probably be so in future, the first crops may perhaps remain at a lower 
level. The average total produce, first and second crops together, is, however, consider¬ 
ably more over the last three years wuth the mineral manure, than that of the first 
crops only over the previous 18 with the nitrate. 
In the total mineral matter, again, there is a somewhat less average amount removed 
in first crops, but a greatly increased amount taking first and second crops together. 
In first crops alone, however, there is twice as much potass, and nearly one-third more 
phosphoric acid, annually removed, since the change chan previously, and very much 
more including the second crops. But, of lime, magnesia, chlorine, and silica, there is 
less removed in the first crops, and of soda only about one-seventh as much as pre¬ 
viously. And, with the improved character of development of the herbage, the per¬ 
centage of potass in its dry substance is more than twice, and that of phosphoric acid 
nearly one-and-a-lialf time, as high as previously. 
Lastly, as to the nitrogen : its percentage in the dry substance of the produce (of 
first crops) has very much diminished, and the average amount of it removed per 
acre per annum is, in first crops, little more than half as much as, and even including 
second crops it is considerably less than, during the period of the application of the 
nitrate. Indeed, although the amount of produce under the influence of the mixed 
mineral manure succeeding the excess of nitrate is very much greater than without 
manure, there is, with the less mixed herbage than on the unmanured plot, and better 
development and maturation, especially of the grasses, a much lower percentage of 
nitrogen, and not much more total yield of it per acre, than without manure. Further, 
in the present season, 1879, the herbage of plot 15 has a very light colour, and upon 
