Grassland and Pasture 71 



as manure ; the mass of material consumed by a few horses or bullocks 

 may be estimated by comparing adjacent pastures, one growing a dense crop, 

 the other, with only a few head of cattle, kept wholly bare, with no flowers 

 except a few residual Buttercups. 1 Where grass has been cut for hay through 

 centuries of agriculture, it is obvious that the continual drain of combined 

 nitrogen, and especially phosphoric acid, may soon become a critical factor 

 for plant-life, rendering manuring essential. For this purpose superphosphate 

 and basic slag are recommended. 2 



The management of Clover-leys, and crops of fodder-plants, as Sainfoin, 

 pure or mixed with special grasses (Lolium perenne, L.italicmri) or Clovers 

 (Trifolium pratense, T. repens, T. minus), follows the same periodicity as 

 that of permanent grassland with its weeds, differing only in the dominance 

 of one or two selected types, and increased possibilities of manuring as these 

 follow in the cultural rotation, and hence becomes the more artificial and 

 ' assisted ' by human agency. 3 



It must be noted that from the standpoint of the agriculturalist, the 

 tending and utilization of pasture-land is really the problem of growing a crop 

 of the best feeding-grasses, to which all inferior grasses as well as all herbaceous 

 plants (with the exception of the Clover-class already mentioned) are objec- 

 tionable weeds. About half the species of grass commonly found in Hay- 

 fields are entirely worthless as fodder, and merely occupy the ground which 

 should be available for better forms, apart from the general presence of 

 Carices and Juncus in low-lying ground. Such weed-grasses include common 

 forms as Anthoxantlmm odoratum, Agrostis alba, Helens lanatus, Aira caes- 

 piiosa, Avena pratensis, Bromus mollis, Hordeum pratense, Briza media, 

 apart from the intrusives of waste ground and ditches. 4 



In this respect the story of the evolution of pasture runs very parallel 

 with that of the problems of forestry. As the pasture of the past has tended 

 to making the best of a scratch lot of indigenous plants, some better than 

 others, and hence encouraged in a mixed culture ; so the future remains with 

 the definite sowing and careful cultivation of either a few types of different 

 succession and degrees of maturation for grazing purposes, with a time-limit, 

 or the production of a pure crop of one form for a definite commercial 

 purpose. 6 It is this mingling of the older custom with the new agricultural 

 methods, as in the supersession of ancient forestry routine by more modern 

 continental practice, which renders the present epoch of plant-life in the 

 district so interesting, as being in an eminently transitional phase ; though 

 while the degree of success attained by the older methods is known, that of 

 the newer departures still remains highly problematical. 



Among the great range of Herbaceous perennials associated with the 

 Hay-crop may be distinguished : 



(1) Those flowering out in early summer before the grass begins to grow 



(Daisy, Dandelion, Ranunculus btdbosus, Luzula campestris). 



(2) Plants growing up with the grass-crop, with elongated inflorescence- 



axis keeping pace with the grass (Plantago lanceolata, Ranunculus 



1 The return of excrement by cattle is enormous, though it only represents a portion of the 

 material taken from the land. In the dry summer of 1921, with no rain from February to September, 

 all droppings dried on the fields, and there was practically no decay. In many parts (especially 

 Port Meadow) the ground was distinctly blackened, and there was more dung than grass. At 

 present Port Meadow affoids grazing for about 300 head of cattle and horses, also loo or so geese. 



2 Cf. Orr (1916), Agriculture in Oxfordshire, for notes on the use of superphosphate and nitrate, 

 p. 213. 



Memoranda of Field and other Experiments, Rothamsted (1900), p. 22, Permanent Grass Land. 



3 Percival (1910), Agricultural Botany, p. 558. Grass and Clover Leys ol 1-3 years duration. 



4 Percival, loc. cit., p. 530. 



Armstrong (1917), British Grasses and their Employment in Agriculture, p. 51. 



5 Percival (1910), p. 565. Mixtures lor Permanent Pasture. 



