Causes of the Appearance of Moss. 69 



what was the principal cause of the success of his 

 campaigns, the Duke replied — " The real reason why I 

 succeeded in my own campaigns is that I was always 

 on the spot. I saw everything, and did everything for 

 myself." Farmers should apply this anecdote to them- 

 selves, and the proprietor, too, if he wishes his fields to 

 be so well filled with good grasses that there is no room 

 for weeds and bad grasses ; and do not let the latter rely 

 on his farm manager or steward, or both. I have both, 

 but, on looking into the work on one occasion, I found 

 that, partly from carelessness and partly from the wind 

 having sprung up, the seed was largely landing, not on 

 the, vacant spots for which it was intended, but on the 

 adjacent grass. 



I have remarked on the importance of filling up the 

 ground with the view of keeping out weeds and bad 

 grasses, but there is another enemy which must not be 

 lost sight of — ^moss, which will speedily reappear in the 

 vacant places, and spread from them. And as regards 

 moss, it is the same in the case of earth in a pot should 

 the plant which occupies it be in an unhealthy conditijjn, 

 and so not only* decline above, but make little root 

 growth below. The soil thus soon becomes solidified, 

 or, in other words, loses its good physical condition, 

 and then it begins to grow moss. And the springing 

 up of moss in a field is really owing to the exposure of 

 the land to the elements, and, besides, to its not being 

 sufficiently kept open by the roots of plants. I was 

 particularly struck with this fact in the case of a field 

 in an alluvial fiat which I had laid down to permanent 

 pasture. On one side of the field there was a knoll of 

 about six or seven acres, and, after sowing the whole field 

 with the grass mixture suitable for such land, I added, 

 to the land of the knoll, burnet, chicory, sheep's parsley, 

 ribgrass, yellow suckling clover, and kidney vetch. 

 These not only aerated the land, but filled it up closely 

 with plants, and the result was that the poorer land of 

 the knoll surpassed the land of the rest of the field. 



