SCOURING LANDS OF CENTRAL SOMERSET. 
435 
the same time I have endeavoured to investigate some pecu¬ 
liarities of scouring land, which I have every reason to believe 
tend to produce immature, abnormally constituted, and on 
this account unwholesome herbage. 
The hay from scouring pastures, when made rather green, 
appears to possess the same injurious properties which dis¬ 
tinguish the grass. But when made less green and rather 
late in the season, it appears either to be entirely freed from 
any injurious properties, or to produce scouring in a very 
slight degree. It is important to bear in mind that hay from 
the same unwholesome meadow, according to the condition 
in which it is made, affects cattle very differently. 
I should have liked to examine the herbage from scouring 
and wholesome pastures at various stages of growth, but had 
no opportunity to undertake a series of analytical examina¬ 
tions of the green produce, and was therefore obliged to 
confine my examinations to hay from sound and from 
scouring pastures. 
Sample No. 1 .—Hay from Scouring Land on Mr. Rugfs Farm, 
Cossington . 
Dried at 212° F., 100 parts of this hay gave— 
8'94 parts of mineral matter, or ash 
In the same condition 100 parts were found to contain— 
1*707 per cent, of nitrogen, which is equivalent to 
10'668 per cent, of nitrogenised compounds. 
Sample No. 2, —-Hay from Feat Land ad Meare , which does 
not scour. 
In a perfectly dry state this hay gave on burning— 
7'11 per cent, of ash in one determination, and 
7*14 per cent, of ash in a second determination. 
A considerable quantity was next reduced to ash, which 
was submitted to a full analysis, when the following results 
were obtained : 
Composition of the Ash of Hay from Peaty Land at Meare, which 
does not scour. 
Lime . 
. 1205 
Magnesia 
327 
Oxides of iron . 
*33 
Potash 
. 21-36 . 
Chloride of potassium . 
8-03 
Chloride of sodium 
9-08 
Phosphoric acid 
4-61 
Sulphuric acid . 
4-36 
Silica . 
' 
' 
. 3734 
100-43 
