FOOD 201 



which buttercups, plantains, docks and chickweed were the 

 most common.* 



The interest attached to these observations is twofold, it 

 is necessary we should understand what grasses are from 

 various circumstances able to survive in the struggle for 

 existence, and it is certainly desirable that we should know, 

 with some degree of exactitude, the botanical varieties of 

 grasses found in some of the richest grass lands in the 

 world, where cattle fatten so rapidly, that with judicious 

 management no less than two sets may be fattened during 

 the one season. 



The exhaustion of the soil which arises from growing 

 grass for hay is considerable. The Eothamsted experi- 

 ments show that hay removes as much nitrogen from the 

 soil as either wheat or barley, and more potash, soda, lime, 

 magnesia, sulphuric acid, and chlorine than either of these 

 cereals. The only mineral matter which wheat and barley 

 assimilate in larger amounts than grasses, is phosphoric 

 acid and silica. 



Potash is the mineral of which grass so largely robs the 

 soil, and in the Eothamsted experiments it was found that 

 potash as a manure, influenced the quantity and character 

 of the herbage more than any other mineral. 



They also show that the exhaustion of grass land which 

 is fed and not mown, is very much less than that of 

 meadow land, as in grazing so much is returned by the 

 animals through the excreta. This, however, is not so 

 evident where the land is grazed by dairy stock, which do 

 not return to the soil the mineral matter which is used up 

 in the production of milk. 



The only grass lands at present spoken of are pastures 

 and meadows, but in addition to these there are water 

 meadows, principally found in the south and west of 

 England, which are periodically flooded. The grasses 

 found on them are not of good quality, but the flooding 



* I am indebted to Dr. Fream's ' Elements of Agriculture ' for the 

 information regarding the grasses of the Bothamsted meadows, and 

 those of the best pasture-lands of England. 



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