74 Fine Pastures may he Formed from the Largest Grasses. 



as there are no weeds nor bad or coarse grasses to be 

 rejected by the stock, the whole pasture, or what may 

 be called the standing crop of hay, is grazed evenly 

 over during the course of autumn and winter ; on the 

 arrival of spring you have a clean field, and up at once 

 starts a fine and even pasture. The Bank field {vide 

 Appendix 111.), now tour years old, shows conclusively 

 that as fine a pasture as could be desired may be 

 formed from the largest grasses. In this case 14 lb. 

 cocksfoot, 7 lb. each of tall fescue and tall oatgrass 

 were used, and only one small grass, Poa trivialis. 

 When such a combination is used you have all the 

 drought-resisting advantages of the large grasses, with 

 the increased vegetable matter from their large roots 

 when the pasture is ploughed up, and by grazing the 

 pasture late in the spring — say, up to the 15th May — 

 you can produce as fine hay as could be desired. 



Another great advantage from letting a pasture up 

 at intervals of several years is, as we have seen, that 

 not only is it re-seeded, but the moss is destroyed, 

 should there be any present. The latter is a point of 

 great importance, and one which I have closely studied, 

 and I am now satisfied that moss is usually caused by 

 the consolidation of the surface soil, which commonly 

 takes place where pastures are continuously and closely 

 grazed, and not merely, as is commonly supposed, from 

 chemical poverty. I was particularly struck with this 

 in the case of a small enclosure I had made in a field 

 with the view of testing the proportions of plants in a 

 young closely-grazed pasture in which moss had made 

 its appearance, but when the grass was let up in the 

 enclosed plot the moss soon disappeared, or nearly so, 

 and a close observation showed that much of it had 

 been dragged up by the rising grass ; I could see it 

 in some cases hanging to the seeding stems. The soil 

 of the enclosed plot soon became comparatively soft, 

 while that of the field was hard and, comparatively 

 speaking, consolidated. I have also observed the same 



