THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



299 



NOTES ON MEADOWS AND PASTURES. 



By JAMES BUCKMAN, F.G.S., F.L.S., 



Professou op Botany and Geology at the Royal Agricultural College. 



The increased activity displayed withia the last few 

 years in the cultivation and management of roots and 

 cereals has resulted, not alone in a comparative neglect 

 of natural pasture and its substitutes, but, in fact, in the 

 constant demand of material for increasing the turnip, 

 the meadow has too often been deprived of its proper 

 pabulum ; and hence arable cultivation has not aug- 

 mented that of the meadow, but in reality the latter 

 has rather retrograded than advanced. The meadow, 

 then, in all its forms is capable of great improvement ; 

 and if we have meadow and pasture as part of a farm, it 

 were surely best to endeavour to develope its produce 

 to the fullest extent, both in quantity and quality. We 

 propose to devote a few papers to an investigation into 

 the natural history and economy of British pasture, 

 taken in its very broadest sense. 



The climate of England is highly suitable for the 

 growth of the fframinacece, to which belong the most in- 

 teresting tribe of plants known as grasses, a tribe of 

 which we have ordinarily recognised two types, 

 namely — 



1. Those which produce large seeds, and are hence 

 grown for their seed or corn, termed cereals. 



2. Those which produce herbage specially adapted as 

 food or fodJer for graminivorous animals, called meadow 

 grasses. 



At present, we shall confine our remarks to the latter 

 group of plants, taking into consideration plants of 

 other families which may form part of a pasture or be- 

 come useful as fodder plants, either separate or in a 

 mixture with grass, 



Tf we examine the species of our meadow and pas- 

 ture grasses, we shall find that they are pre-eminently 

 natives to our soil ; in no matter have we been less 

 indebted to foreign lands than this. It is true, ho iv- 

 ever, that we import seeds of many of the grasses that 

 we grow, such as derivative varieties of timothy and 

 ryegrasses ; indeed, England, in colonising, has spread 

 her wild grasses over a great part of the globe. We 

 have gathered moit of our true meadow and agrarian 

 species in the United States ; and it may almost be 

 said that American pastures are all artificial, in the full 

 meaning of that term ; for although we see in the more 

 temperate of the Northern States sjme tolerably fine 

 pastures, and not bad lawns, about the cities, yet both 

 these are truly not aboriginal — indeed, one scarcely more 

 80 than the other — but the result of cultivation ; and we 

 shall hereafter see that, even at home, cultivation is abso- 

 lutelynecessary, if we would maintain anefficient pasture. 

 Our species of wild grasses may become a large or small 

 list, according to the value we set upon specific distinc- 

 tions. Thus the genus Bromus will, by some, be made to 

 number as many as a dozen species. Mr. Bentham, 

 however, in his " Handbook of the British Flora," has 

 reduced them to seven, whilst for ourselves we should 

 be almost inclined to only pin our faith to four. 



The accompanying list, however, is compiled upon the 

 following principles : it is meant to show the number of 

 species of British grasses, judging of these more parti- 

 cularly by a difference not only in form, but in quality. 

 It is generic ; with, however, an allocation of the num- 

 bers of sp"'' ■'> affecting different positions, the more 



particular details connected with which will follow after- 

 wards. 



Table of the Distribution of British Wild 

 Grasses. 



This table may be considered as remarkable for show- 

 ing us how small a number of species of grasses, even 

 of our wild examples, are properly part of a meadow, 

 only 24 out of 119; and yet, if we examine into these, 

 we shall in reality find that the best meadows in Eng- 

 land will not present us with anything like half this 

 small number, except as very rare examples, in which 

 cases they may just as well have been left out, in as far 

 as the best interests of the meadow are concerned. We 

 thus arrive then at the important conclusion, that 

 only a few of our wild species of grasses are worthy of 

 cultivation, though all are worthy of attentive study as 



