Translations:Benutzer:Arian/Klett-Mini-Test/448/en

Their place is in rainfall-rich areas, on slopes endangered by erosion, on only extensively usable, shallow grazings and dry sites — but above all wherever groundwater rises close to the surface: along both banks of streams and watercourses, in low-lying ground, at boggy hollows, or in fenland. The breaking up of permanent grassland — through drainage or the lowering of the water table, for maize cultivation — should be avoided wherever possible. Permanent grassland is resistant to flooding and, as a standing culture, acts through the long absorbing roots of the grasses to purify the groundwater flowing toward the watercourse, drawing from it the nitrates that originate in the more distant arable regions. Permanent grassland, by virtue of grazing and hay-cutting, remains perpetually in a vegetative state of growth. It therefore requires abundant water — or more precisely: the etheric formative forces that work through the element of water; water, that is, which is exposed to the working of forces of the metabolic pole of the farm individuality. This is the case when the water table stands near the surface (40 cm below ground level), or in the case of water meadows, or in irrigated cultivation on the slope.