AGEICULTUKE. 157 



clovers, which springing in the early part of winter (or 

 late in autumn), maintain a low state of development 

 during the winter, and spread out luxuriantly with the 

 genial spring weather. 



On the uplands and medium lands carrying considerable 

 stock, in the spring season the trefolium (medick clover) 

 prevails over the graminaceous grasses ; its predomi- 

 nance is in proportion to the stock kept on the ground, 

 more particularly in the case of sheep, whose close feeding 

 allows little chance of the grasses seeding, and being 

 annuals they necessarily die out of the land, whereas the 

 trailing habit of the medick clover, its abundant seed, 

 produced on every shoot however short it may be eaten, 

 causes it to dominate. Succulent and nutritious as this 

 trefoil is, its excessive predominance is a great evil, and 

 is a sure sign of overstocking. It is an early plant, and 

 seeds and dies down early in the summer ; the steins and 

 trailers being of a soft and succulent nature are extremely 

 light and substanceless when dry, completely withering 

 in the summer heats, and leaving the ground on which it 

 has grown most luxuriantly, perfectly bare. On the other 

 hand, the more solid stems of the true and graminaceous 

 grasses, when they have a chance to grow and the 

 stronger and closer packing of the roots present much 

 greater resistance they also, falling over, protect the 

 land from the action of the sun, checking the evaporation 

 of moisture, and encouraging the germination of the fallen 

 seed and the intermingling of a young and tender grass 

 with the faded. 



Did every sheep-walk comprise the varieties of soil, 

 elevation, and herbage which I have here described, it 

 would be an easy matter to ensure a continuous and 

 sufficient pasturage for flocks of sheep duly proportioned 

 to the land ; but, as the rule, probably a flock of 2,000 



