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to the growth of grasses, and any one who has been in England and 
visited the trimly kept pleasure grounds of some of the more wealthy 
landed proprietors cannot but have remarked the beauty of their smooth 
green velvet-like lawns. The closeness and delicacy of the herbage of 
these lawns are chiefly the results of repeated mowings. The grass is 
never allowed to seed, scarcely allowed to obtain mature leaves before 
they are removed ; organizable matter does not, therefore, acccumulate 
in the roots in sufficient quantity to produce rank, luxuriant foliage, hence 
the delicacy and softness of the leaves produced. 
It is considered doubtful economy to pasture meadows early in spring 
which are intended to be mown for hay in the following summer. The 
quantity of hay produced is less in consequence, the reason is obvious. 
The first formed leaves produced in spring are employed in generating sap 
to feed other leaves, and to be stored in the roots for the support of the 
blossoms and seeds. If the first leaves are eaten off by cattle, instead of the 
roots becoming richer in organizable matter by their action, and being in 
a position to produce yet more vigorous foliage as they would have been 
if the first leaves had remained, they have to furnish matter to replace 
the leaves destroyed, and, as in the case of the turnip plant, deprived of 
foliage, sustain a double loss in consequence. 
A practice which proves injurious with plants grown for the sake of 
their leaves and stems, may, under certain circumstances, prove benefi¬ 
cial with plants grown chiefly for their seeds. On rich soils in Britain, 
if wheat is sown thick and early, and the winter should prove mild, it 
will continue to grow throughout the winter months, and may prove too 
thick and luxuriant early in spring—the wheat is commonly called by 
farmers “winter proud.” If the leaves are suffered to remain, the 
stems are too numerous, weak, and drawn up, and the crop, in conse¬ 
quence, is liable to lodge and to be attacked by mildew—hence the yield 
of grain of a crop, in this state, proves inferior in quality and produce. 
To remedy this evil some turn sheep on the wheat early in spring and 
pasture it down—others mow the leaves off. The result of either prac¬ 
tice is, that the luxuriance of the plants' is checked, and instead of throw¬ 
ing out fresh tillers, producing a crowd of stems which interfere with 
each other’s functions, a considerable proportion of the organizable mat¬ 
ter of the roots is expended in the formation of other leaves in the room 
