IMMEDIATE AFTER-MANAGEMENT OF NEW PASTURES. 95 



destruction of those species which are not benefited, by enabhng 

 stronger neighbours to choke them. Only those who have care- 

 fully observed the results obtained in Sir J. B. Lawes' experi- 

 mental grass plots wiU adequately reaUse the importance of 

 applying suitable manures, not merely for the purpose of aug- 

 menting the crop, but as a means of maintaining or destroying 

 some of the grasses. 



But manuring is not the only medium by which changes in 

 the character of a plant of grass may be effected. Some varieties 

 are specially adapted for grazing, others for making into hay. 

 A fine old pasture which has been fed for many years wiU often 

 yield a miserable crop of hay, and may be utterly ruined by 

 being mown for several consecutive seasons. Conversely, a mea- 

 dow which has been mown for years and kept in condition by 

 annual top-dressings may prove altogether unsatisfactory as a 

 pasture. Grazing gives all varieties of grasses, except a few 

 which will not bear treading, a full chance of existence ; while 

 haying fosters the growth of those grasses which come to maturity 

 at a particular period of the year. Some of the most valuable 

 pasture grasses are often entirely absent from good old meadow 

 land. It is therefore desirable as far as possible to reserve mea- 

 dow land exclusively for mowing; and pasture land for grazing. 

 The prevalent idea that continuous haymaking is inimical to the 

 welfare of a meadow is entirely illusory, and probably arises from 

 neglect in giving any return to the land for the crops taken from 

 it. Of course the hayrick can be made the instrument of im- 

 poverishing grass land more quickly than can overstocking ; still 

 it is not the cutting of grass which is injurious, but the absence 

 of the top-dressing of manure or compost which every meadow 

 should receive annually. 



