VI. PASTURE PLANTS 
“Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy paths drop fatness. 
They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness: and the little hills 
rejoice on every side. 
The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over 
with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing.” 
—A Psalm of David (Psalm 65:11-13). 
Before there were tilled fields, there were green pastures. 
The grazing animals made them. They cropped the tall 
vegetation and trampled the succulent herbage, and pasture 
grasses sprang up and flourished in their stead. Wherever 
there were pieces of level ground frequented by wild cattle, 
there pastures developed. 
Pasture plants have seeds that are readily carried about and 
distributed by the muddy feet of cattle. They also have 
good staying qualities: once rooted in the soil, they will live 
long even where they can grow but little. So we find them 
growing everywhere, flourishing in the light, hanging on in the 
shadow, as if waiting for a chance—even in the deep shadow 
of the woods. Cut down the trees, and the grasses appear. 
Keep all the taller plants cut down, and the grasses spread and 
form a meadow. Brush-covered hills are sometimes changed 
into pastures simply by cutting them clean and turning in 
sheep. More sheep are kept on them than can find good 
forage; so, they are reduced to eating every green thing. It 
is hard on the sheep, but the grasses, relieved of the competi- 
tion of the taller plants, spread in spite of very close cropping. 
After two or three seasons, the hills are turf-covered: the 
woody plants are gone. This is a crude method of pasture 
making, and one that is coming to be practiced in our day 
more often with goats than with sheep, goats having a wider 
range of diet; but it illustrates some fundamental condi- 
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