III. Agricultural, botanical, and chemical results of experiments on the mixed herbage of permanent grass-land, conducted for many years in succession on the same land.—Part III. The chemical results.— section I

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Abstract
The Experiments on the Mixed Herbage of Grass-land were commenced in 1856, and are still in progress, so that the present is the 44th year of their continuance. About seven acres are devoted to the purpose ; and since the first few years there have been 20 main plots, some of which have temporarily been subdivided. There are two continuously unmanured plots, and the remainder have respectively received different descriptions or quantities of manures of known composition. During the first 19 years, first crops only were removed from the land ; the second crops being fed by sheep, or if there were not sufficient for this, they were cut and spread. In the twentieth and subsequent years the second crops were cut, removed, and weighed, excepting in a few seasons when the produce was extremely small; in which cases it was cut and spread on the respective plots. In all cases of both first and second crops, the dry matter and the ash, and in most the nitrogen, have been determined. In selected cases, determinations have been made of the amount of nitrogen existing as albuminoids, and in some, of the amount of “ crude woody-fibre,” and of crude fatty matter. More than 200 complete analyses of the ashes of the produce have also been executed ; besides nearly 40 of the ashes of other crops, the results of which are given and considered. All the ashes have been prepared at Rothamsted, and the analyses made by Mr. R . Richter; in the earlier years in the Rothamsted Laboratory, but subsequently in his own laboratory at Charlottenburg, Berlin. Lastly, samples of the soil of every plot, in some cases at different periods, and generally representing the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth, depths of nine inches each, or to a total depth of 54 inches, have been collected ; and they have been chemically examined in various ways.

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