THE BATTLE OF LIFE. 95 



individual plants of the same species and having the same 

 requirements. As the competition of alien plants may be 

 prevented by weeding, so internecine war between plant and 

 plant of the same kind may be mitigated by the adoption of 

 thin seeding, which allows each individual to attain its com- 

 plete development, and enables it to avail itself to the full 

 of the resources at its disposal. Unless under exceptional 

 circumstances and for some special purpose, it is more pro- 

 fitable so to grow plants as to diminish the competition 

 between individuals by affording each the best possible 

 chance. Otherwise, the strongest or best adapted prevails, 

 indeed, over those less favourably situate, but there is, so 

 far as the cultivator is concerned, a loss of energy and a 

 waste of resource in the case of the beaten plants. The 

 cultivator requires for his purpose the largest number of 

 plants of good average quality; nature favours the develop- 

 ment of a few of exceptional power of adaptation, which 

 therefore overcome their fellows, but which are not neces- 

 sarily the best for the farmer. 



The Battle in the Meadow. The battle of life is 

 perhaps best studied in mixed pastures where a great 

 variety of plants of different families, different con- 

 struction, and different requirements are grown in associ- 

 ation. In such pastures some of the constituent plants 

 are valuable to the farmer, as some of the grasses and 

 most of the leguminous plants ; others are relatively 

 useless and may be positively injurious. The behaviour of 

 the different classes of plants so growing in association, but 

 under varied conditions of manuring, for a large number 

 of years, has been made the subject of prolonged and elabo- 

 rate study at Rothamsted. A few of the leading results 



