THE BATTLE OF LIFE. 91 



ments. As the competition of alien plants may be pre- 

 vented by weeding, so internecine war between plant and 

 plant of the same kind maybe mitigated by the adoption 

 of thin seeding, which allows each individual to attain 

 its complete 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 profitable 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 favorably 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 

 favors the development of a few of exceptional power of 

 adaptation, which therefore overcome their fellows, but 

 which are not necessarily the best for the farmer. 



The Battle in the Meadow, The battle of life is per- 

 haps best studied in mixed pastures where a great variety 

 of plants of diiferent families, different construction, and 

 different requirements are grown in association. 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 behavior 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 

 may here be mentioned in merest outline for the purpose 

 of illustrating the subject of this chapter, and of afford- 

 ing matters for consideration by the practical cultivator. 



The total number of different kinds of plants that 

 have been found on the plots is eighty-nine, of which 



