Now you will not say any more, as the cows or the butterflies might, that the hay-field was always there.
And how did men change the soil?
By tilling it with the plough, to sweeten it, and manuring it, to make it rich.
And then did all these beautiful grasses grow up of themselves?
You ought to know that they most likely did not.

You know the new enclosures?
Yes.
Well then, do rich grasses come up on them, now that they are broken up?
Oh no, nothing but groundsel, and a few weeds.
Just what, I dare say, came up here at first.

But this land was tilled for corn, for hundreds of years, I believe.

And just about one hundred years ago it was laid down in grass; that is, sown with grass seeds.
And where did men get the grass seeds from?
Ah, that is a long story; and one that shows our forefathers (though they knew nothing about railroads or electricity) were not such simpletons as some folks think.

The way it must have been done was this.