THE BATTLE IN THE MEADOW. 919 



oako will furnish the jiroper woupon to rout these udversarics." 



"The Battle in the Meadow."— As wolves quarrel over a 

 dcHil uniniiil, or hungry swine over an ear of corn, so plants 

 struggle with each other to secure the greatest amount of food. 

 Whether they he diatoms in the pool, fungi on the rotting ai>ple, 

 weeds hy the wayside, or grasses in the meadow, one rule governs 

 them all. Each strives for all it can get. Dean Ilerhert was 

 more than half right: "Plants do not grow where they like 

 best, hut where other plants will let them." 



On this subject, and in this connection, we are fortunate in 

 having access to the results of the prolonged and elaborate 

 experiments of Sir J. B. I^wes and his associates at Kotham- 

 sted, St. Albans, England.* 



For more than twenty years in succession he experimented on 

 the agricultural, botanical, and chemical results of a mixi-d 

 herbage in a permanent meadow. There were 2-1 plots, ui)on 

 some of which were placed different kinds of fertilizers and ujmu 

 others none were used. 



It was a very old pasture, having been in permanent grass over 

 a century, No fresh seed of any kind was sown during the period. 

 The land was flat, heavy loam, Avith a red clay subsoil resting on 

 chalk, naturally well drained. The first crop, for a few years, 

 was mown; the second was eaten off by sheep. There were 

 twelve different manures employed. The total number of species 

 observed upen these plots Avas 89, belonging to '2'2 orders, of 

 which 20 were grasses and 10 leguminous. 



On the unmanured plot, there were sliglit changes from vear 

 to year, due mainly to dilTerence in the seasons and a slight 

 exhaustion of the soil. By weight, the grasses furnished 09 per 

 cent, the leguminous plants 8, and the otlier 20 per cent was of 

 a miscellaneous character. As Masters, the botanist who was 



♦See Jour. Roy. Ag. Sou., 1858-9; Philosoph, Trans. Roy. Soc, 1882. 



35 



