226 



HINTS AND NOTES 



Sheep's Fescue, and other grasses with sharp 

 or filiform flower-stalks, have the bottom leaves 

 alone browsed, and the flower-stalks are left. 

 Where cows or horses browse such grasses 

 are eaten entirely. Where donkeys are kept 

 in meadows by the sea, thistles and other 

 plants are eaten, whereas inland where don- 

 keys are rarer they are left. 



Meadow and Pasture. Though it is a very 

 well known fact to those brought up in the 

 country that a meadow differs greatly from a 

 pasture, yet the townsman treats both alike as 

 fields, and save at haytime rarely distinguishes 

 them. Even those who are conversant with 

 the country, if not intimate with the methods 

 and practice of farming, are liable to overlook 

 this fact, which is of the greatest importance 

 from the botanical standpoint, as has already 

 been pointed out under other heads. 



The essential differences between them 

 should be properly grasped, and then the 

 difference in the flora of each will soon be 

 appreciated. 



A meadow is subjected to several different 

 changes during the year. About March the 

 surface is covered with a dressing of soil or 

 manure, and in many cases basic slag is em- 

 ployed. This has a beneficial effect upon grass 

 for a certain time (after which it is deleterious 

 if continually used), but it kills off such plants 

 as orchids. 



This dressing is evenly strewn over the sur- 

 face by a brush- or chain-harrow. The grass 

 is laid between April and June or July. The 

 meadow is then cut after the flowers have all 

 bloomed and seeded, and the Grasses in par- 

 ticular are ripe. It then assumes a sere aspect 

 till it becomes green again, but all its former 

 diversity vanishes until late in autumn. When 

 the new grass has become strong, often yield- 

 ing a second crop in good years, it may in 

 October or earlier be turned into pasture for 

 the time being. 



The pasture may or may not be a meadow 

 originally. And as a rule meadows are 

 periodically turned into pasture, and pastures 

 are allowed to be laid to grass. But as a 

 matter of fact, apart from this rotation, there 

 is usually another reason for the setting aside 

 of certain fields for pasture, and others for 

 grazing, in addition to the general convenience 

 of position upon a particular farm. This is 

 due to the character of the vegetation, some 

 fields being better suited to the one than the 

 other. The reasons for this vary in each area 

 owing to the difference of soil. 



Pupils may be set to examine each to dis- 

 cover the differences. As a rule, drv ground 

 is given up to pasturage, and moist ground to 

 meadows, so that one has a natural division 



into dry pastures, often hilly, and wet meadows, 

 generally lowland. 



One feature that must not be overlooked is 

 the greater intensity of the struggle for exis- 

 tence in the pasture than in the meadow, and 

 a good deal of interesting work awaits the 

 pupil in estimating the reasons for this, and in 

 collecting details to explain it. 



Cultivation and its Effects. Subsequent to 

 the cutting down of the continuous aboriginal 

 forests and the making of clearings the 

 country was crudely drained and cultivated. 

 A great deal of this had been already done at 

 the time of the Norman Conquest, for the 

 survey speaks of so many carucates of land, or 

 land under the plough, in each village. And 

 certain parts of the country bear unmistakable 

 signs of this, especially in the Midlands, the 

 land of ridge and furrow. The ridge and 

 furrow was the result of the old-fashioned 

 mode of ploughing, the furrows being the 

 drainage system, the ridge being prepared for 

 the raising of corn. 



The boundaries of such fields at right angles 

 to the ridge were termed sillons, and were 

 caused by the necessity of going round the 

 ends, and not up and down alternate furrows 

 as nowadays. These sillons exist to-day, and 

 may be seen to coincide sometimes with present 

 boundaries. 



Thus meadow and pasture were once corn 

 land in many cases. Where no such furrows 

 exist the ground may (i) not have been drained 

 and cultivated in early days, or (2) may have 

 been once ridge and furrow and since culti- 

 vated recently. In modern cornfields and fields 

 relaid, or "seeds", and fallow land, the 

 ridge and furrow are obliterated. The present 

 system of drainage with pipes is relatively 

 modern, dating usually from the sixteenth or 

 seventeenth century in early cases, but from 

 the eighteenth or nineteenth more generally. 



The difference between meadow, pasture, 

 seeds, and fallow should b'e noted, and lists of 

 plants on each compared. The two last are at 

 first transitional from cornfields with a broken 

 open surface 



The effect of cornfields upon the surrounding 

 grassfields should be noticed. It is a neglected 

 feature. The introduction of many cornfield 

 and waste-ground plants into fields is due to 

 the influence of wind blowing seeds, cartage, 

 &c. Where a cornfield is dirty, the surround- 

 ing fields will soon be filled with thistles, &c. 



Modern Meadow Plants. The origin of the 

 present meadow plants must be sought in the 

 far past. Apart from the derivation of the 

 vast bulk of meadow and pasture plants in the 

 way described, i.e. after tree felling, cultiva- 

 tion, drainage, enclosure, &c., there were 



