Grassland and fodder crops

Grassland is of fairly stable botanical composition, dependent upon soil and management in cultivation and stocking. Meadows overflowed by water were sufficiently recompensed by the &s;fatness&s; the water left behind, and rich and dry enclosed grassland may have been improved by the dunging of the animals, if it were spread and harrowed in at appropriate times, but the hay meadows could become mossy and less valuable. The natural grass of the Vale of White Horse was well managed and manured, but there were many anthills. Grassland deserved more attention than it has ever received, but a few of the more enterprising farmers in the second half of the seventeenth century began to treat grass as a crop. Maize, which had been tried unsuccessfully by Blundell about 1700, was one of the new fodder crops that enthusiasts advised dairy farmers to grow.