* * * *
A Barren Problem
On a common, which is also a golf-course, is a recess behind gorse bushes decorated with two heaps of earth. One is green with unnumbered weeds, every seed on it seems to germinate : nettle, thistle, grass, plantain, polygonum, senecio, speedwell and the rest. The other heap is entirely unadorned, has been unadorned for two years. This bare and stark heap is composed of the scrapings from the rollers that frequently ply over the fairway. You would say that it consists of the best sort of top soil that should be invaluable ; but it is the experience of all the groundmen that these roller scrapings are always completely barren. " Not even a thistle "—and the dwarf thistle is the favoured weed of the common—" will grow there," they say. The soil is use. less. What is the explanation ? The question may fitly be asked. of that most useful committee of research into grass and greens that have their headquarters at Bingley in Yorkshire. The groundmen suggest that the mud consists chiefly of wormcasts, and that the worm secretes a poison, yet the worm is one of the great agents of soil fertility.
* *
Previous page
