78 HOW TO GROW GOOD GRASSES. 



CHAPTER XII. 



ON THE WEEDS OF PASTURE. 



" Weeds in pasture !" said an old farmer friend ; " I 

 thought hay and grass was all weeds." This, which 

 is by no means an uncommon notion, sufficiently ex- 

 plains the want of care in the cultivation of the best 

 kinds of meadow produce, which can only be effected 

 by the destruction of what is useless or mischievous. 



Now, if we proceed upon the assumption that the 

 best kinds of meadow are remarkable for the posses- 

 sion of little else than the best kinds of the true 

 grasses, we shall see that pasturage should, in the 

 main, be composed of good grass-growth, with only 

 some few other plants which may be capable of aug- 

 menting quantity, by their nutritive matter, giving 

 flavour, or improving quality. 



It follows, then, that all plants having none of 

 these requisites must be, to all intents and purposes, 

 only mischievous weeds; as thus a large useless 

 plant in a meadow, as in an arable field, must not 

 only occupy the space that would be better taken up 

 by good plants, but it appropriates a large quantity 

 of food to the prejudice of the better crop. 



Viewed in this light, then, what a mass of weeds 

 some of our pastures will be found to contain ! In 

 fact, what with useless plants, other than grasses, and 

 coarse, sour, or useless grasses themselves, we meet 

 with so-called meadows to which the terms of " barren 

 moor" or waste land would be especially applicable. 



