INFLUENCE OF MANURES ON MUTTON. oly 

the first two months, but they fell off considerably after 
August 15, and at the end of the grazing period there was 
only one ready for the butcher. One sheep fell ill in the 
beginning of October, and at the iast weighing was found to 
have lost 7 lbs. In calculating the increase for the last 
monthly period, the average gain made by the seven healthy 
sheep was taken as being the gain that should have been 
made by the sick animal. 
The salesman valued the healthy sheep, at 34s., and 
remarked that one was very good, that the remainder were 
2 
useful ‘‘ stores,’ and that the wool indicated rather a scanty 
food supply for the previous fortnight. 
The hay crop on the ;4,-acre sub-plot was inferior in quality 
to that on must plots, but was decidediy better than the crops 
on Plot 2 and 6. 
Plot 2.-—/our tons of common lime tn 1897. 
At the end of the third season practically no benefit had 
been derived from this, the most costly of the applications of 
1897, and instead of a profit being realised, as on other plots, 
there was a deficit of 50s. 5d. per acre. In the fourth season 
a slight improvement was noticeable, more especially in the 
early months, and as compared with Plot 6, Plot 2 has some- 
what improved its position. But, in face of the expenditure, 
and of the results obtained on the other plots, it cannot be 
said that lime has added to its reputation by its effect on Tree 
Field, and even if we accept the butcher’s valuations, which 
are much more favourable to this plot than the weighing 
machine, the loss still stands at over 30s. per acre. The 
coarse and valueless aspect of the herbage on Plot 2 is a 
source of great surprise to the majority of visitors, whe 
associate the use of lime with “sweet” pasture and a gen- 
eral improvement in the land and stock. But on the poor clay 
soil of the Tree Field, deficient both in organic matter and 
phosphates, lime has been given an impossible task, and it is 
in demonstrating the uselessness of liming pastures pro- 
miscuously that this plot is so serviceable as an object lesson. 
The value of time when used as an auxiliary to a phosphatic 
manure will be noted further on. 
