150 PLANT-LIFE ON LAND [CH. 



may be produced (Fig. 27). The further agents are 

 Animals and Man. Of Animals the most effective 

 to this end are rabbits and sheep. The former do 

 harm as well as good. It is true they nibble down 

 the coarser growths, keeping in check the exuberance 

 of certain of the woody plants that invade the links, 

 and do so much to give them permanence. They 

 crop the sward to an even velvet, stiff it is true 

 in the pile, but short and smooth such as the 

 Golfer loves, and seldom finds except on the true 

 Links of the coast. So close is this film of turf to 

 the underlying sand that as the ball falls upon it 

 from a long tee shot the sound is sometimes like 

 the ringing of a bell: veritably it is the sound of 

 the "Musical Sands." But while rabbits thus help 

 to produce a suitable turf, their holes and scrapings 

 are a perpetual trouble, and discount in appreciable 

 degree the advantages which they bring. Over and 

 above the irritation from loss of balls, and " cupped ' 

 lies, there is the risk from opening up the underlying 

 sand to the action of the wind. The close nibbling 

 of sheep is also effective without these disabilities, 

 but they do not crop so close as rabbits. Both 

 agents frequently work together, but the rabbit is 

 there on sufferance rather than by choice, while 

 the sheep is penned upon the Links on purpose. 



The Raw Material of the Golf Course, originating 

 as the resultant of the factors named above, and 



