56 THE NATURAL PASTURES 



the year and tastes sour between the teeth. 

 One finds turfed pasture in forests and their 

 outskirts, and usualty where there is rainfall 

 enough for crops, as in Western Europe and on 

 the eastern half of South Africa. That, I 

 think, is not the pasture which made the 

 hardy range horse. 



Where there is less than eight inches of rain 

 one finds the range grass, of separate plants 

 with the bare earth between. The three 

 American kinds are the bunch grass of the 

 hollows, a tall tussock with tap roots reaching 

 down to moisture ; the little buffalo grass 

 from tw^o to four inches high ; and the gramma 

 grass of the same size which inhabits Mexico. 



One ma}^ presume that the tussock fed the 

 oldest herds and that, as it failed, the pony 

 took to eating the shorter grasses. 



The horse in a meado\v pasture does not eat 

 the ranker growths, but grazes the shorter, 

 smaller kinds of grass. From this we may 

 reason that the little buffalo grass of the ranges 

 is the typical food of the species. The leaves 

 of this plant are green in the spring but soon 

 cure to a golden tawny colour, which changes 

 to brown in the autumn, and a washed-out, 

 greyish brown in winter. As the}' cure, the 

 leaves curl downwards one by one until the 



