PASTURE PLANTS 53 



tions. Keep almost any weed patch mown, and it soon 

 will be grass-covered. 



The valuable pasture plants are all low-growing perennials, 

 that spread over or through the soil and take root widely, 

 and that are uninjured by the removal of their tops. Where- 

 fore, an amount of browsing and trampling that is sufficient to 

 destroy their competitors, leaves them uninjured and in 

 possession of the soil. We raise some of these pasture grasses 

 on our lawns. We crop them with a lawn mower to make 

 them spread, and we compress the soil about them with a 

 heavy roller, and a turf results. But these operations are 

 performed in nature by means of muzzles and hoofs. 



If you would understand the conditions pasture plants have 

 to meet you can hardly do better than to cultivate friendly 

 relations with some gentle old cow, and follow her awhile 

 about the pasture watching the action of her muzzle and 

 hoofs. Watch her crop the grass. See how she closes on it, 

 and swings forward and upward, drawing it taut across the 

 edges of her incisors (these being in her lower jaw). Hear 

 the grass break at the joints, and tear and squeak as inter- 

 nodes are withdrawn from their sheaths. Then pull some 

 grass by hand, and observe that while single leaves may break 

 anywhere, the stems for the most part break at the joints, 

 which are so formed that little injury to the plant results. 

 The parts necessary for re-growth remain attached to the 

 soil and uninjured. Then try the tops of any common garden 

 weeds, and observe that, for the most part, they pull bodily, 

 out of the ground. Herein appears one of the characteristics 

 of good pasture plants: they must be able to withstand 

 cropping — even close cropping. 



Then watch the old cow's hoofs as she walks about over the 

 turf. See how they spread when she steps in a soft place. 

 Look at her tracks and see how the sharp edges of her hoofs 

 have divided the turf and spread the roots and underground 



