738 UTILIZATION OF FOREST HERBAGE FOR FODDER. 



by scarcity of springs and a slow disintegration of the rock. 

 They also abound in deep clefts. As soon, however, as a little 

 clay is mixed with either sand or limestone, provided that the 

 soil does not thereby become too stiff, or impermeable by 

 water, plenty of grass will be produced. An abundant and 

 constant supply of water during summer is almost more 

 important than a mixture of clay, for grass production. On 

 this account, the crop of grass on a naturally dry soil is 

 markedly increased by an admixture of humus, or by the 

 shelter of a thinly stocked wood [of larch, for instance. Tr.], 

 which moderates radiation from the ground and protects it 

 from drying winds : for this reason, mountain-forest grazing 

 grounds and grassy blanks are so much moister than those 

 outside the forest. Anyone can observe the increased deposi- 

 tion of dew in open land with scattered shrubs and bushes 

 which keep-off the wind, and the comparative dryness of 

 similar land without this protection. The depreciation of the 

 Alpine meadows in the Tyrol, and in many parts of Switzerland 

 and Austria-Hungary, is due chiefly to the clearance of forests. 

 If the soil once suffers a diminution of steady moisture, sour 

 grasses, rushes, etc. take the place of sweet meadow-grasses. 



c. Insolation. Grasses, clovers and most fodder-plants are 

 usually light demanders ; many of them love exposure to full 

 sunlight, and these are most nutritive, though somewhat hard ; 

 other grasses and herbs are half-shadebearers, being less 

 nutritive than the light demanders, but they have softer leaves 

 and shoots. For this reason, tracts, that have been freed from 

 trees, by clear-cuttings, storms or fire, become covered with 

 willow-herbs (Epilobium), or fleabane (Erigeron), etc., and are 

 less favourable than those shaded by isolated trees such as 

 oak-pastures in wide river-valleys, mountain larch-woods, 

 larch plantations, meadows with pollards forms of woodland, 

 the chief object of which is to favour pasture. 



In forests, the ground becomes covered with herbage first of 

 all among light-demanding trees, oaks, birches, pines, etc. 

 (Dr. Peters found that this verdure under trees comes from 

 seeds, that have remained for a score of years and more at 

 rest in the soil). Among shadebearers, in dense woods of 

 spruce, silver-fir, or beech, there is no herbage; the soil- 



