70 Plant-life of the Oxford District 



the Hay-crop little is known, and in absence of definite information it is 

 usual to assume that they are at any rate * indigenous ' to the country. On 

 the other hand, as a hay-field with a densely-mingled crop of half a dozen 

 or more of grasses, all flowering at the same time, is a biological absurdity 

 from the standpoint of cross-pollination by the wind, this special community 

 of many forms sufficiently indicates the complex origin of the association 

 and its artificial selection. 



The Hay-crop follows a distinct succession, and the grass begins to grow 

 in March ; the undergrowth becoming thick and the shoots elongating in the 

 early weeks of April, to a foot high at the beginning of May. The species 

 flower out in succession, beginning with Anthoxanthum? to be followed by 

 first Bromus mollis, Alopecurus pratensis, and Poa pratensis. The last is 

 dominant in the early weeks of May, with addition of Festuca duriuscula, 

 AvenapratensiS) Poa trivialis? The main crop comes on with the flowering 

 of the taller grasses Dactylis glomerata^Festucapratensis^\\^ Arrhenatherum 

 avenaceum. The closing up of the fruiting panicles of this last form is the 

 sign that the crop is ready. At this time Anthoxanthum and Bromus mollis 

 may have shed their seeds, and be wholly dried out. 3 In fields which are not 

 cut at this stage other grasses come on, particularly Trisetum flavescens^ 

 Cynosiirus cristatus, and the grasses of early July, as Agrostis alba, stolonifera^ 

 and Phleum pratense. Lolitim perenne flowers on from the end of May to 

 July with greatest range ; the finest grasses of the Hay-crop, Alopecurtis^ 

 Festuca pratensis^ have the most restricted period, as they have little distribu- 

 tion beyond the pastures. With the cutting of the Hay-fields flowering 

 grasses greatly diminish : a few flower sporadically into the autumn, but 

 these wholly die down by mid-November, leaving the fields bare, though 

 more or less green, over the winter months. The second crop of the water- 

 meadows is usually small in quantity and poor in quality; it commonly 

 contains no flowering grasses and few flowering herbaceous perennials. 

 Fruiting Leontodon autumnale is characteristic, in quantity sufficient to tint 

 the field. Only in the extreme case of late spring floods can it compare 

 with the main crop. 



From these considerations it will be seen that the grasses of pasture-land 

 normally present a working-period of just 3 months in the year, from 

 mid- March to mid-June, as compared with the 6-months period of the 

 trees of deciduous woodland. Such attainment of quicker returns, which 

 affords the clue to their high degree of specialization as reproductive 

 mechanisms, extends to the herbaceous types associated with them, in a 

 manner which recalls the association of the herbaceous flora of the woodland 

 with the trees of high-forest, regarded in turn as the main crop; the 

 ecological interests of the agriculturalist being much on a par with those of 

 the forester. 



Pasture-land may be put up for hay during the growing season, and 

 grazed during the rest of the year, or a hay-crop may be taken one year 

 out of two (or more, on poor ground), and grazed the others. Port Meadow 

 has not been cut in living memory. Grazing cattle return a certain amount 



1 First-flowering record ranging from April 22, in early seasons, to May 8 in late. Alopecurus 

 pratensis, a more typical grass of the early Hay-crop ranging from May i to May 17. 



2 Fields are closed for Hay about the middle of May, as the crop becomes too thick to walk 

 over without damaging it. Fields trampled over by footballers in the winter may be at this time 

 gardens of flowers. 



3 In the early dry season of 1921, hay-cutting began June 6, and the crop was carried as cut. 

 The water-meadows (Iffley to Sandford) were carried by June 21, and the second crop was saved by 

 Sept. II. In the delayed rainy hay-harvest of 1922, cutting was general only in mid-July, though 

 the first alluvial field was cut June 12. Later alluvial fields were cut at the end of July and the last 

 Iffley Field (and poorest, below the lock) on August 5, 15, 25, and not all carried until Sept. 5. 

 On other fields a second crop was taken in the first week of October. 



