318 INFLUENCE OF MANURES ON MUTTON. 


One of the six sheep on Plot 2 had to be removed on 
August 22, when another was substituted, and the average 
gain made by the five healthy sheep was credited to the plot 
for the period that the sick animal had been off its feed. _ 
The salesman valued the sheep on Plot 2 at 36s. They 
were in a thriving condition, and though none were fit to kill, 
they were, as a lot, better finished than those on the last plot, 
and they were much better than the sheep on the unmanured 
plot. 
The hay crop on the sub-plot was poor both in quantity 
and quality, consisting chiefly of Agrostis. 
Plot 3.—10 cwts. of basic stag (200 lbs. phosphoric acid) im 
february, 1897. 
Plot 4.—5 cwés. of basic slag in February, 1897, and again in 
November, 1899. 
These plots may be conveniently considered together. It 
will be observed that by the spring of 1900 each plot had 
received the same quantity of manure, which, in the one 
case, was supplied as a single dressing in 1897, and, in the 
other case, in two dressings at an interval of three years. 
The two original questions as between these plots were: 
first, in what quantity may basic slag be profitably employed? 
and second, which will pay best in the end, io cwts. 
applhed in 1897, or 10 cwts. applied half for the crop of 
1897 and half for the crop of 1900 ?_ The first three seasons 
gave to the former query a much more emphatic answer than 
was expected. The larger dressing proved to be very much 
the more profitable, and at the end of 1899 the net profit, as 
compared with the untreated land, amounted in the one case 
to 78s. 4d., and in the other to 30s. 3d. peracre. The answer to 
the second question cannot be forthcoming till the end of the 
sixth season, but already there are indications that the 
supplementary dose given to Plot 4 is producing an effect. 
White clover, which was so conspicuous a feature of 
Plot 3 in former seasons, was not much in evidence in the 
spring of the present year, and it looked as if the supremacy 
of this section of Tree Field had come to an end, but the 
month of May found this plot earlier and better than any of its 
