HOW TO GROW GOOD GRASSES, 



CHAPTER IX. 



ON THE NATURE OF MEADOWS AND PASTURES. 



The terms " meadow " and " pasture " are usually 

 employed together, as though they were really dis- 

 tinct things; yet few people think of them as 

 different, — the fact being, that when a field is occu- 

 pied with grass, it may be called a meadow, in con- 

 tradistinction to that land under the plough, or 

 arable: this yields meadow-hay if mowed for that 

 purpose, or pasturage when fed off or depastured by 

 our flocks or herds. 



The meadow, then, as being fixed, is termed " per- 

 manent pasture." Pasture-herbage, however, is grown 

 in the shifting crops of arable cultivation ; in which 

 case it gets the term of " artificial pasture." Hay 

 from the first of these is called " meadow-hay," 

 whilst the mixture of grasses, clovers, &c, gets the 

 name of " artificial grass," or " hay," as the case 

 may be. 



As regards permanent pasture, this may be old or 

 new, — some meadows having been in green herbage 

 even for centuries, whilst others, though sufficiently 

 old, yet show traces of having been once arable in 

 the more or less high-backed ridges left by ancient 

 ploughing. Viewed in this way, original pasture is 



