THE BATTLE OF LIFE. 91 
ments. As the competition of alien plants may be pre- 
vented by weeding, so internecine war between plant and 
plant of the same kind may be mitigated by the adoption 
of thin seeding, which allows each individual to attain 
its complete development, and enables it to avail itself to 
the full of the resources at its disposal. Unless under 
exceptional cir¢umstances and for some special purpose, 
it is more profitable so to grow plants as to diminish the 
competition between individuals by affording each the best 
possible chance. Otherwise, the strongest or best adapted 
prevails, indeed, over those less favorably situate, but 
there is, so far as the cultivator is concerned, a loss of 
energy and a waste of resource in the case of the beaten 
plants. The cultivator requires for his purpose the 
largest number of plants of good average quality ; nature 
favors the development of a few of exceptional power of 
adaptation, which therefore overcome their fellows, but 
which are not necessarily the best for the farmer. 
The Battle in the Meadow.—The battle of life is per- 
haps best studied in mixed pastures where a great variety 
of plants of different families, different construction, and 
different requirements are grown in association. In 
such pastures some of the constituent plants are valuable 
to the farmer, as some of the grasses and most of the 
leguminous plants ; others are relatively useless and may 
be positively injurious. The behavior of the different 
classes of plants so growing in association, but under 
varied conditions of manuring, for a large number of 
years, has been made the subject of prolonged and elabo- 
rate study at Rothamsted. A few of the leading results 
may here be mentioned in merest outline for the purpose 
of illustrating the subject of this chapter, and of afford- 
ing matters for consideration by the practical cultivator. 
The total number of different kinds of plants that 
have been found on the plots is eighty-nine, of which 
