i 4 2 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



problem has recently been gone into anew by the present 

 writer. 1 This concerns a considerable area of pasture land 

 in the middle of Somersetshire in a district given up almost 

 entirely to dairy farming. Here again are marked differences 

 in the feeding value of closely adjoining pastures ; but in this 

 case the bad fields are actually injurious. In these particular 

 districts the herbage of much of the grazing land has the 

 property of causing cattle feeding there to be scoured very 

 seriously indeed at certain times of the year, such pastures 

 being known locally as " teart " or " turt " land. Their presence 

 naturally lowers the value of the farms on which they are 

 situated, though the extent to which the scouring properties 

 of the herbage are developed varies greatly in different places ; 

 and good and bad fields are often intermixed in a very intricate 

 manner. Cows in milk suffer most severely but all kinds of 

 cattle may be affected ; lambs also are scoured badly, whilst 

 sheep and horses are, for the most part, exempt. The scouring 

 is usually most prevalent in the autumn — when cattle are feeding 

 on the aftermath — and as a rule the more abundant the growth 

 the more serious the trouble becomes, varying with the season. 

 Individual animals vary greatly in the degree to which they 

 may be affected. 



Such scouring on the " teart " lands has been attributed to 

 a variety of causes, among them the presence of some particular 

 plant in the herbage and a bad water supply. Neither of these 

 explanations, however, can be substantiated. 



Nor does the trouble suggest a specific disease and attempts 

 to isolate a responsible organism have proved abortive. Infec- 

 tion never travels from a " teart " field to a neighbouring sound 

 field even though only a ditch may separate the two ; nor do 

 cattle transferred from " teart " to sound pastures ever bring 

 infection to healthy cattle with which they may come in contact. 

 The usual result of the application of manures to "teart" 

 pastures is to make matters worse as the growth is increased 

 and when large numbers of sheep are fed in these fields the 

 same result is noticed. On the other hand, the first two or 

 three sharp frosts remove all tendency to cause scouring from 

 the autumn herbage. 



" Teart " land in Somerset is entirely confined to one 

 geological formation, the Lower Lias. The typical surface soil 



1 Gimingham, Jour. Board of Agric. vol. xvii. 1910, p. 529. 



