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.
1. Moors, uplands, and downs (such as Dartmoor and Salisbury Plain) are
more or less wild according to their elevation and the geological
formation on which they occur. They consist of large tracts of land
either without fences at all, or only those of the most inefficient
kind, rather boundary-lines than otherwise. They are never used for
haymaking, nor are they cultivated beyond depasturing. These are dotted
with patches of rough grass, thorns, briers, and shrubs or stunted
trees where the surface is much broken, and the animals they are made to
carry are few; but on the more rounded and smooth lines of the downs is
a finer herbage, kept so not only from the nature of the case, but from
the fact that such a position favours the more thickly stocking it with
that close-grazing animal the sheep.
These pasturages, though very extensive, are yet being encroached upon
by a higher cultivation, and the hayfields one occasionally meets with
around the squatter’s cabin even in the wild mountainous parts of Wales
sufficiently testify to the greater productiveness of which the most
unfavourable districts are capable.
2. The village common is sometimes extensive; it, too, as the former, is
only grazed. Many of them have of late years been enclosed. Where much
depastured—and they usually carry as much stock as they can bear—there
is a remarkable absence of plants other than grasses. Indeed,
grass-herbage, and usually of the best species, will prevail, unless in
places where there may be stagnant water, in which cases a little
drainage would produce a large public benefit; but as what is
everybody’s business is done by no one, the common is too often left
much wilder, and thus made poorer than it need be.
3. The river flats here meant are, for the most part, large fields
partaking of the nature of common; that is, certain farmers and others
have the privilege of grazing during the autumn; but it is _aimed up_
early in spring, for the purpose of taking a crop of hay. Such lands
would be impoverished by such constant haymaking; but the winter floods
leave behind them a deposit of silt and fluviatile materials, and
perhaps beside act as a solvent; so that their fertility is wonderfully
maintained.
Many such wide stretches of meadow occur on the banks of the Severn, as
in the neighbourhood of Gloucester, Tewkesbury, Worcester, &c., where
they get the name of _Ham_. It is much to be regretted that these hams
are not made the most of, for the same reason as applies with respect to
common, for the want of some efficient officer to direct improvements;
and so from the water here and there stagnating good herbage is ruined,
and from the floods not being controllable, even hay is lost with the
summer freshets. But where such land is vested in single enterprising
proprietors, not only is drainage insured, but embankments are made to
keep out the waters when not required, as so much met with on the banks
of the Thames; and such fields are at once an evidence of the
capabilities of river flats, and the great importance of individual
enterprise.
4. The last case approaches very nearly to that of _irrigated_ meadows;
but these latter are mostly situate on small streams, which can be
directed to flow through, not over them, at any time: they offer a most
important means of augmenting our pasturage in certain districts, and
will therefore receive a chapter to themselves.
5. Permanent grass enclosures are of very varied sizes, from hundreds of
acres, forming perhaps a park, to the small meadow of the homestead;
they may be seldom or never used for haymaking, but most of them are
aimed up for hay once, twice, or thrice in four or five years. These
form the greater part of the grass-lands of our country, and are indeed
nowhere greener or more productive than in the British Isles; still, as
we are an advocate for their cultivation—which, if it does not quite
realize the position of making two blades of grass grow where one grew
before, may at least do much in this direction—we shall reserve further
remarks upon this subject until we have particularly analyzed the
contents of a meadow.
6. As shifting crops, grasses, and other fodder plants may be made
exceedingly useful, these may therefore well occupy a chapter to
themselves.