turf is made up of species of grasses that are not individually 

 of large size, of fine grasses rather than rank ones. I have 

 considered the distribution of grasses as determined by the 

 climate, but Science and Agriculture point to another ele- 

 ment almost as important ; the civilization, indust^ traffic, 

 and agricultural systems of the people, and often to historical 

 events. Man carries the grasses of one continent to another, 

 he protects some, he changes all by cultivation. He adapts 

 the soil to them, and them to the soil. If the soil be too wet 

 he drains it, if too dry he irrigates it, if too poor he manures 

 it, and by cultivation he produces new varieties of grasses 

 better suited to his uses. 



Let us now consider the changes that take place in the grad- 

 ual growth of a new pasture into an old one, and to make the 

 case more plain, let us begin with a piece of land newly 

 cleared from the forest, and without grasses, and suppose we do 

 not seed it ; for this is what actually took place in the Old 

 World, where their pastures began long before the art of seed- 

 ing to grass was practiced. In fact, seeding down pastures or 

 meadows artificially is quite a modern phase of agriculture, 

 one that has grown up almost entirely within about a hun- 

 dred years. Strange it seems to us, but such is the fact. 



Well, let us return to our newly cleared land, which, if hill 

 or rolling land, is generally quite poor in vegetable matter, 

 although it may be rich in the mineral ingredients necessary 

 to fertility. The ground will not remain bare. Weeds, and 

 wild and poor grasses will soon come in, and partially occupy 

 it. The first grasses are wild and usually poor, because tough, 

 wiry species can best fight their way and hold their own in 

 the struggle with the weeds, and can best resist extermination 

 by unwholesome conditions. A botanist carefully looking 

 over the soil might find quite a variety of species, but the 

 farmer would pronounce them poor ones. He would say that 

 the soil was " unsubdued," and the grass tough and wiry. 

 As I have said, the soil might naturally be good, but there 

 would be but little vegetable matter just at the surface or near 

 it, aad that is where the grasses need it most. 



