SCOURING LANDS OF CENTRAL SOMERSET. 
545 
dually developed, and, further, that the former invariably 
scour, whilst the latter are wholesome. 
Living in the country, I have had ample opportunity of 
observing this fact, and also that the grass on water-meadows 
is never more unwholesome than when it grows most luxu¬ 
riantly. In this condition grass is rich in nitrogenized com¬ 
pounds, in soluble saline substances, and in organic acids. 
At an early stage of growth we find in all vegetable produce 
a much larger proportion of soluble saline matter, organic 
acids, and other combinations which have an aperient effect, 
than at a more advanced stage of growth. In the measure in 
which plants advance in maturity the soluble salts become 
insoluble, the organic acids disappear, and are replaced to a 
great extent by sugar; the compounds of nitrogen and the 
mineral matters decrease in proportion to the bulk of the 
whole plant, and other changes which cannot be here described 
in detail take place in the growing vegetable organism. The 
great difference in the taste of almost every plant at an early 
and more advanced period of growth shows that the composi¬ 
tions of ripe and immature plants materially differ from each 
other. I do not know a single herb which, consumed in 
quantities in an immature condition, does not act as an 
aperient; even plants which when quite ripe are good tonics, 
at an early stage of their growth possess laxative properties. 
In many parts of Germany the expressed juice of various 
herbs, such as dandelion, millefoil, water-cresses, or common 
meadow-grass, is considered a favorite spring medicine for 
purifying the blood. It is, however, only in the spring, when 
vegetation makes, as it were, a fresh and rapid start, that these 
herb-juices possess the desired aperient effect, and it matters 
little what kind of herb is employed in their preparation. 
Several other facts well known to practical men confirm 
my analytical investigation of the herbage of sound and 
scouring pastures, and receive an intelligible explanation by 
the latter. It is, for instance, a well-known fact that the 
application of manures to scouring-land increases the evil in 
proportion to the forcing effects of the fertilizers employed and 
the consequent luxuriant growth of the young herbage. 
In scouring pastures there is abundance of plant-food, and 
hence ih the drier summer months the herbage on such pas¬ 
tures grows with great luxuriance. The direct use of manure 
increases still further this luxuriant growth of the herbage, 
but at the same time retards its getting mature soon enough 
before it has to be made into hay. Hence the use of manures 
generally aggravates the scouring properties of the herbage. 
An excess of manure under all circumstances retards the 
ripening process, and tends to produce less wholesome and 
xxxv. 35 
