56 HISTORY OF FARM


There is one tree that regularly invades our neglected
pastures. Itisthe hawthorn. The cattle browse on it, but
they leave a remnant of new growth every year. So its
increase is very slow until it gets beyond their reach: slow
but sure. All the while its dense cone of stubs is shaped
smoothly as ina lathe. But once emancipated from their
browsing, it suddenly expands upward into the normal
form of the spreading hawthorn tree.
Study 6. Pasture Plants


Any old pasture will do for this: the more neglected, the
more interesting its population is likely to be. The equip-
ment needed is merely something to dig with. Let all the
work be done individually.
The program of work will consist in digging wp one by one,
first the forage plants andthen the weeds, andexamining them,
root and branch. Give special study to the forage plants—
the grasses and the clovers. Dig them up and pull them up.
Find their predetermined breaking points. Observe their
mode of spreading through the soil. Trample them, espec-
jally with the heels of your shoes. Observe their preparedness
for the rooting of dismembered parts. Observe in the weeds
also their various ways of preventing being pulled up or eaten
up and trampled out of existence. Also stake out a square
yard of typical pasture and take a census of its plant popula-
tion.
The record of this study will consist in:

1. Annotated lists of:

(a) Forage plants.
