THE BATTLE IN THE MEADOW. 278 



will furnish the proper weapon to rout these adversaries." 



"The Battle in the Meadow." As wolves quarrel over a 

 dead animal, or hungry swine over an ear of corn, so plants 

 struggle with each other to secure the greatest amount of food. 

 "Whether they be diatoms in the pool, fungi on the rotting apple, 

 weeds by the wayside, or grasses in the meadow, one rule governs 

 them all. Each strives for all it can get. Dean Herbert was 

 more than half right: "Plants do not grow where they like 

 best, but where other plants will let tTiem." 



On this subject, and in this connection, we are fortunate in 

 having access to the results of the prolonged and elaborate 

 experiments of Baron J. B. Lawes and his associates at Rotham- 

 eted, St. Albans, England.* 



For more than twenty years in succession he experimented on 

 the agricultural, botanical, and chemical results of a mixed 

 herbage in a permanent meadow. There were 22 plots, upon 

 some of which were placed different kinds of fertilizers and upon 

 others none were used. 



It was a very old pasture, having been in permanent grass over 

 a century. No fresh seed of any kind was sown during the period. 

 The land was flat, heavy loam, with a red clay subsoil resting on 

 chalk, naturally well drained. The first crop, for a few years, 

 was mown; the second was eaten off by sheep. There were 

 twelve different manures employed. The total number of species 

 observed upon these plots was 89, belonging to 22 orders, ef 

 which 20 were grasses and 10 leguminous. 



On the unmanured plot, there were slight changes from year 

 to year, due mainly to difference in the seasons and a slight 

 exhaustion of the soil. By weight, the grasses furnished 69 per 

 cent, the leguminous plants 8, and the other 23 per cent was of 

 a miscellaneous character. As Masters, the botanist who was 



*See Jour. Roy. Ag. Soc., 1858-9; Philosoph. Trans. Roy. Soc., 1882. 

 35 



