THE MEADOW. 7 



seeds, when ripe, are easily detached from the stem, 

 so that when the haymaker tosses about his newly- 

 mown crops for the sake of drying them, he at the 

 same time scatters his field with abundant store of 

 seed for the next season. 



I have only to add one or two interesting facts 

 respecting grass, and I shall have done with this 

 subject for the present. If you go into a field 

 which, instead of being reserved for hay, affords 

 pasturage for cattle, you will find that the leaves 

 are cropped almost close down to the ground, and 

 that the young shoots are more numerous and 

 more thickly matted together than they were in 

 the hay-field. Now, you would scarcely suppose 

 that the spreading of the roots is at all promoted 

 by the removal of the young shoots and leaves, 

 but such is the case, for grasses, as well as many 

 other plants, have a strong tendency to send out 

 numerous small branches, if the leading stem be 

 removed. Thus, it appears, that animals when 

 grazing are promoting the growth of their food 

 instead of retarding it. They diminish the actual 

 size of the plant indeed for to-day, but so judi- 

 ciously that to-morrow finds it more productive 

 than ever. Instinct, in fact, teaches them to treat 

 grass in the same way that man does trees when 

 he cuts a willow or an ash-tree down close to the 

 ground, in order that he may supply himself with 

 rods or poles. But here is another circumstance 

 still more wonderful. In all pasture lands, how- 

 ever closely the grass be nibbled, or even if more 

 animals are sent into them than the space allotted 

 will supply with adequate nourishment, you will 

 always discover scattered here and there a few 

 tall stems bearing spikes of seeds at their tops. 



