PASTUHAQE. 137 



covered with a close matting of grass roots impenetrable to the deli- 

 cate roots of forest seedlings, there the sharp feet of cattle and the 

 plucking action of their bite combine to tear up the grass at numer- 

 ous points and thus make openings for seedlings. Lastly, in all 

 conifer forests, without the crushing action of the feet of cattle, the 

 dry undecomposed needles form a thick layer over the ground, 

 through which the roots of seedlings are unable to reach the mineral 

 soil below, or are at least able to do so with difficulty. 



Exceptionally, a fifth advantage may be derived from regulated 

 grazing. In mkture babul forest, when a new generation of 

 seedlings is required, the appearance of this latter is singularly 

 accelerated by admitting goats and folding them at night within 

 th§, area while the pods are falling. The seeds that have been 

 voided by the animals germinate without delay, whereas the rest 

 generally take at least a whole year to sprout, during which time 

 they are exposed to every cause of injury or even complete de- 

 struction. 



The principal dangers arising from grazing are as follow : — (1). 

 The removal of the herbaceous vegetation means the loss of so 

 much manurial matter, including potash, phosphorus, and nitrogen 

 in its most assimilable form. (2). The animals break and crush 

 young seedlings, the heavier kinds under their broad hoofs, sheep 

 and goats with their sharp and quick-moving feet which cover but 

 little ground at each step, the mischief being aggravated in the 

 case of sheep by their moving in a dense mass together. (3). 

 Forest-bred cattle, and even those that are only partly stall-fed, ac- 

 quire the habit of eating the leaves and twigs of forest trees with as 

 much relish as they browse off grass and herbaceous vegetation. 

 All cattle without exception, when very hungry, fall greedily and 

 indiscriminately on every green thing before them ; and we know in 

 what a starving condition the animals are brought into the forest 

 every year from the villages. To make matters worse, these animals 

 arrive when the grass is dry, hard, and tasteless, so that in their 

 famished condition they make at once for all the low forest growth, 

 which, asa rule, puts forth new foliage before the new grass makes 

 its appearance. Now we know that a woody plant suffers most and 

 recovers least easily while its new flush of leaves is coming out. 

 Thus the heaviest grazing occurs during the most dangerous season 

 for forest vegetation. Broad-leaved species, yielding, as they do, 

 the best fodder, suffer most. (4:). When the soil is wet, the con- 

 stant tread of the animals beats it down into a hard pan quite im- 

 penetrable to the roots of forest seedlings, and it is when the soil 

 has been drenched by rain that seeds germinate ; hence the presence 



