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Our life is so inextricably interwoven with that of the grasses which grace our fields that the study of grassland is both fascinating and intriguing to all who possess an inquiring mind, be they born and bred in towns or sons of the soil. What is more, the management of the grass sward for farming, sport or pleasure offers a real challenge to skill, in the feeding of plants and the tending of them throughout their life, as well as to one’s understanding of technical developments in the realm of botany, chemistry, engineering and economics.

Where should we be without grass? Our life is so dependent on this humble, oft-neglected plant that we must appreciate its real significance in the nation’s economy. Without grass our country would lose its scenic beauty, so many sports their colourful background and in scores of ways our lives would be changed. The ordinary grass field one sees every day on any farm, the sports ground with which one is so familiar at school or college or in the wider arena of national games, the small patch of green which graces the front or back of so many English homes, is a complex community of plants each displaying likes and dislikes, and different reactions to varying treatment, yet supplying an essential need whether on the world or simply the individual scale.

For over thirty years my special interest has been grassland and when I was asked by the Editors of the New Naturalist Series to present the story of grassland for their readers, I accepted with alacrity.

In writing such a book one must draw from many sources of knowledge and from many writers of the past and I hope I have made due acknowledgements to the many who have contributed to our understanding of grassland. I am deeply indebted to my own colleagues in College for their ready help and guidance and particularly to Mr. K. C. Vear, Professor H. T. Williams and Mr. R.J. Halley. Not being a botanist, I have had much assistance from Mr. Vear, Head of the Biology Department and as I am not an economist, Professor Williams, formerly Head of Agricultural Economics and now of the University of Aberystwyth, has been of material assistance with Chapter 16; Mr. Halley has given me invaluable assistance with the more practical aspects of grassland husbandry, and Mr. R. W. Younger with Chapter 18. To Mr. D. J. Barnard I am very indebted for help with the proofs.

To the Editors I am grateful for their help in the preliminary stages of writing the book, while to Mr. John Gilmour I am especially indebted for his most valuable criticism and guidance at all stages of preparation. While I hope the book will have a wide appeal generally, I am particularly hopeful that the many schools throughout the country now using a school plot or a school farm or maybe a neighbour’s farm as a living medium for teaching, will find it of value. To the many students now attending the recently instituted day-release classes organised by County Education Authorities in agriculture, to those at Farm Institutes and to all students gaining practical experience prior to College or University courses I hope this book will serve as encouragement to a deeper appreciation of the value of the grass crop and an added incentive to further investigation and wider reading.