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 thatis 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nodes are withdrawn from their sheaths.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 
