A Field Lesson on Pasture Plants 



James G. Needham 



Before there were tilled fields there were green pastures. 

 The grazing animals made them. They cropped the tall 

 vegetation and trampled the succulent herbage, and pasture 

 grasses sprang up and flourished in their stead. Wherever 

 there were pieces of level ground frequented by wild cattle, 

 there pastures developed. 



Pasture plants have seeds that are readily carried about and 

 distributed by the muddy feet of cattle. They also have 

 good staying qualities: once rooted in the soil, they will live 

 long even where they can grow but little. So we find them 

 growing everywhere, flourishing in the light, hanging on in the 

 shadow, as if waiting for a chance — even in the deep shadow 

 of the woods. Cut down the trees, and the grasses appear. 

 Keep all the taller plants cut down, and the grasses spread and 

 form a meadow. Brush-covered hills are sometimes changed 

 into pastures simply by cutting them clean and turning in 

 sheep. More sheep are kept on them than can find good 

 forage; so, they are reduced to eating every green thing. It 

 is hard on the sheep, but the grasses, relieved of the competi- 

 tion of the taller plants, spread in spite of very close cropping. 

 After two or three seasons, the hills are turf-covered: the 

 woody plants are gone. This is a crude method of pasture 

 making, and one that is coming to be practiced in our day 

 more often with goats than with sheep, goats having a wider- 

 range of diet: but it illustrates some fundamental condi- 



