1. HOW TO GROW GOOD ROOTS. 2. HOW TO GROW GOOD GRASSES. 3. HOW TO GROW GOOD CLOVER. 4. HOW TO GROW GOOD CORN. 5. HOW TO GROW GOOD HEDGES. 6. HOW TO GROW GOOD TIMBER. 7. HOW TO GROW GOOD ORCHARDS. LONDON: ROBERT HARDWICKE, 192, PICCADILLY. HOW TO GROW GOOD GRASSES. CHAPTER IX. ON THE NATURE OF MEADOWS AND PASTURES. The terms “meadow” and “pasture” are usually employed together, as though they were really distinct things; yet few people think of them as different,—the fact being, that when a field is occupied with grass, it may be called a _meadow_, in contradistinction to that land under the plough, or _arable_: this yields meadow-hay if mowed for that purpose, or _pasturage_ when fed off or depastured by our flocks or herds. The meadow, then, as being fixed, is termed “permanent pasture.” Pasture-herbage, however, is grown in the shifting crops of arable cultivation; in which case it gets the term of “artificial pasture.” Hay from the first of these is called “meadow-hay,” whilst the mixture of grasses, clovers, &c., gets the name of “artificial grass,” or “hay,” as the case may be. As regards permanent pasture, this may be _old_ or _new_,—some meadows having been in green herbage even for centuries, whilst others, though sufficiently old, yet show traces of having been once arable in the more or less high-backed ridges left by ancient ploughing. Viewed in this way, original pasture is not so extensive as may be supposed; indeed, there is scarcely such a thing at all, as all pastures are the result of something like cultivation,—as, left to themselves, that is, to Nature, they would soon resume the aspect of jungle, moor, or marsh, according to soil and situation. Meadows and pastures may, then, for our present purpose, be conveniently tabulated as follows:— A. PERMANENT PASTURES. 1. _Moors and uplands_, unenclosed or but partially fenced in. 2. _Commons_, unenclosed land, usually about villages, conferring the right of cattle and goose grazing. 3. _River flats_ and lowlands, liable to floods. 4. _Irrigated Meadow_, in which the water is controllable. 5. _Meadows_, or permanent grass enclosures. B. ARTIFICIAL PASTURES. 6. _Seeds_, shifting crops of some grasses, clovers, saintfoin, &c., used either mixed or separately.