20 BRITISH PLANTS 
Russia, the puzstas of Hungary, the prairies of America, 
and the pampas of Argentina. In the British Isles the 
culture of wheat is limited to certain well-defined areas : 
in England to the Eastern and South-Eastern counties, 
certain central counties, and the plains east of the Pennine 
Chain ; in Scotland to the lowlands of the Clyde and 
Forth, and the coastal ledges from Berwick to the Firth 
of Tay; in Ireland wheat is now confined to the driest — 
and sunniest spots, such as occur in the rain-shadow 
of the mountains in the south-eastern parts of th 
island. 
In recent years the fall in prices, due to the importation 
of wheat from abroad, has contracted the limits of its 
cultivation at home. Much of the land has been con- 
verted into pastures and market-gardens, and the culture 
of wheat is gradually becoming restricted to the heavy 
clay-lands of Essex and the Wash. 
Barley has a much wider range than wheat. It is 
grown throughout the wheat-area and considerably 
beyond it. Much of it is converted into beer and spirits. 
Oats are, of all the cereal grasses, the most indifferent 
to climate. They are grown all over Ireland and in the 
damp valleys of Scotland, where they form a staple food 
for man and beast. 
2. Pastures.—These may be natural or artificial. The 
former occur in elevated regions (e.g., downs), and are 
used mainly for grazing sheep. Artificial pastures are 
of two kinds : 
(a) Permanent Pastures, which have been reclaimed 
from moor or bog. They were ploughed once and sown 
with grass. One crop of hay is perhaps taken off them 
each year, after which they are abandoned to grazing. 
Hill-pastures are used as sheep-runs. 
(6b) Pastures sown with Clover and Rotation-Grasses.— 
These occur on the richer, moister soils of the lowlands, 
and require periodical manuring and ploughing. They 
may be used either as meadows cut for hay, yielding on 
damp soils two crops a year, or for the grazing of cattle 
in the milk-districts. The dairies of England are chiefly 
in the west, where the rainfall is abundant and the grasses 
tall and succulent. 
3. The Conversion of Vegetation into Meat.—The 
feeding of stock upon pastures results in the conversion 
