INFLUENCE OF MANURES ON MUTTON. 319 

rivals. For the first two months it more than held its own, 
and at the end of the third month it was still, so far as weight 
of mutton went, the best plot in the field. Later on, however, 
it fell away and finished with a total live-weight increase 
of 8 lbs. less than was made by Plot 4, and of 28 lbs. less 
than was obtained from Plot 8. 
Piots 3 and 4 were both stocked with nine sheep to start 
with. On June 20th three additional animals were put on 
Plot 3, and on July 18th one additional sheep was put on 
Plot 4. No subsequent changes were necessary. 
The herbage on these plots presented a most interest- 
ing contrast, and in the month of July it was difficult to realise 
that so great a difference could have followed from so com- 
paratively slight a cause as the application of 10 and of 
5 cwts. per acre of the same manure three years previously. 
Plot 4 presented the characteristic appearance of land that 
has recently had slag, anda thick sole of white clover was 
conspicuous through the closely-eaten grass. Plot 3 at a 
little distance was much more like a meadow ready for the 
mower than a sheep pasture, and closer inspection showed 
that the dense carpet of white clover, which was so prominent 
in previous years, had largely disappeared, and that in 
its place there was a thick growth of natural grasses. ‘The 
very strong growth made by the grasses (especially by crested 
dogstail) accounts for the comparatively poor results got 
from Plot 3in August, September, and Octoper. As the sheep 
were unable to keep the grasses down in the early summer, 
many of them ran to seed, so that the herbage was latterly 
rough and somewhat inferior. To do full justice to the pasture 
which Plot 3 produced, it would have been necessary to 
graze it partly with cattle; but this, of course, would have 
intertered with the character of the experiment. 
When we remember that in one case this is the fourth crop 
grown since the manure was applied, and that in the other 
the slag used last autumn will not exert its fuil effect unti! 
1901, the financial results obtained on both plots in the 
past season are most satisfactory, and the profits made com- 
pare favourably with those of previous years. The net profit 
is still very much in favour of the heavy dressing of slag. 
