334 MEADOWS AND PASTURES 



they say that the golden gorse blooms every month of 

 the year! The broom, too, is a legume; is eaten more 

 or less by sheep, is a lovely shrub, and should be started 

 in wild, rocky pasture lands in mild climates, as indeed 

 it is in the Willamette Valley in Oregon and in Bedford 

 county, Va. One can buy seed of either gorse or broom 

 of European seedsmen. Gorse is sown as a hedge plant, 

 on the tops of earthen walls, in Guernsey and Jersey, and 

 its branches bake the bread of the cottager after they 

 have served their purpose of keeping the cold wind from 

 the browsing cows. Gorse needs inoculation, probably, to 

 succeed in America. There are other things that we 

 could bring in to special localities with climates suiting, 

 and in time our pasture flora will no doubt be consider- 

 ably enriched. 



Sir Walter Gilbey's Idea on Overstocking. Sir Wal- 

 ter Gilbey, a careful student in England of the horse, 

 seems to have found clue to the disappointment that so 

 often follows attempts at horse breeding. There will 

 be seen, for instance, that one or two wonderful horses 

 have come from certain- pastures and then men will un- 

 dertake to produce there many colts, hoping that they 

 also will have great excellence. In this they are fre- 

 quently disappointed. To quote Sir Walter: "I trust 

 that my practical experience as a breeder of most descrip- 

 tions of stock may be held to excuse me for offering 

 an opinion on so important a subject as the raising and 

 feeding of blood stock. Whenever large breeding studs 

 have been established, I have found, in every instance, 

 that after a period the animals have failed to maintain 

 their original standard of excellence. I am convinced 



