34 • FRESH FIELDS 



act in two ways in promoting that marvelous green- 

 ness of the land, namely, by growth and by decay. 

 As the grass springs quickly, so its matured stalk 

 or dry leaf decays quickly. No field growths are 

 desiccated and preserved as with us; there are no 

 dried stubble and seared leaves remaining over the 

 winter to mar and obscure the verdancy of spring. 

 Every dead thing is quickly converted back to vege- 

 table mould. In the woods, in May, it is difficult 

 to find any of the dry leaves of the previous 

 autumn; in the fields and copses and along the 

 highways, no stalk of weed or grass remains; while 

 our wild, uplying pastures and mountain-tops always 

 present a more or less brown and seared appearance 

 from the dried and bleached stalks of the growth of 

 the previous year, through which the fresh spring- 

 ing grass is scarcely visible. Where rain falls on 

 nearly three hundred days in the year, as in the 

 British islands, the conversion of the mould into 

 grass, and vice versa, takes place very rapidly. 



