ON THE MIXED HERBAGE OF PERMANENT MEADOW. 
1249 
The position of this plant on the experimental plots is very marked. It was not 
first on any of the plots in 1862 ; but in that year it was second on plots 1 and 2, the 
first with farmyard manure and ammonia, and the second with farmyard manure 
alone. In 1867, however, it had reached the first place on plot 2, with farmyard 
manure alone up to 1863 inclusive, but no manure since ; and it was third on plot 1, 
where the farmyard manure and ammonia-salts had been applied up to 1863, and the 
ammonia-salts alone since. On neither of these plots was it either first, second, or 
third in either 1872 or 1877 ; nor did it reach 5 per cent, of the produce in either of 
these two later separation-years. On plot 1 (dung and ammonia-salts the first eight 
years) it yielded 21*92 per cent, in 1862, 10*55 per cent, in 1867, 4*55 per cent, in 
1862, and only 0*83 per cent, in 1877. On plot 2, again (dung alone the first eight 
years and no manure afterwards), it went down from 17*77 per cent, in 1862, to 16*39 
per cent, in 1867, 3*89 per cent, in 1872, and to only 0*18 per cent, in 1877. 
As the table shows, on only one other plot (14), with the larger amount of nitrate 
of soda and the mixed mineral manure, did it attain to the first or second place ; and 
it was only on that plot that it yielded more than 5 per cent, of the produce in each 
of the four separation-years. Indeed, here it gave 18*04 per cent, in 1862, 17*69 per 
cent, in 1867, 42*1 per cent, in 1872, but only 8*02 per cent, in 1877. In 1870, how¬ 
ever, the year of extreme spring and summer drought, plot 14 yielded an enormous 
crop of Bromus mollis; estimated at half, or more, of the total produce. In 1871, 
again, this plant was estimated to yield the greater part of the crop on this same plot 
(14), owing probably in great part to the large number of seedlings produced in the 
previous year. As more fully discussed in Part I., p. 334, et seq., the predominance of 
Bromus on this plot, in years of drought, is attributed to its wiry and deep roots 
gaining possession of the lower layers of the soil, and thus rendering it comparatively 
independent of surface moisture, and able to arrest the deeply percolating nitrate. 
Its chief rival on the plot is Poet trivialis, especially in wet seasons; whilst on the 
plots with the same mineral manure, and the same amount of nitrogen, but supplied 
as ammonia-salts, Bromus mollis occurs in very insignificant amount, Poa trivialis is 
in much less amount than Poa pratensis, and Dactylis and other free-growing grasses 
attain a high place. 
It should be observed that plot 14, on which such large quantities of Bromus occur, 
is contiguous to plot 1 on one side, and to plot 15 on the other; so that its freer 
occurrence on those plots than anywhere else, excepting on plot 14, may in part be 
accounted for by this circumstance. Upon the whole, Bromus mollis has somewhat 
gone down on plot 14 in the later, frequently wet years ; Poa trivialis , as already said, 
proving its most successful rival, and Alopecurus coming next. It remains to be seen 
whether Bromus, a plant of evil reputation with the farmer, will not re-assert itself in 
years of comparative drought. 
