HORTUS GRAJMINEUS WOBURNEXSIS. 241 



detailed at pages 6 — 9, shewed that the mucilage, starch, 

 gluten, and sugar, were retained in the body of the animal for the 

 purposes of life, and that the bitter extractive and saline matters 

 were voided with the woody fibre ; which, combined, constituted 

 the excrements, or those parts of the vegetable not retained in the 

 body of the animal for the purposes of life. 



Tares and white clover are very succulent plants, and their 

 fattening powers are well known ; but when cultivated singly, or 

 without admixture of any other plants, there are several instances 

 that have come under my own observation, where they have been, 

 in cold moist weather in the early part of the spring, productive 

 of the diseases termed red-water, and diarrhoea or looseness ; the 

 former in sheep fed on white clover, and the latter in cattle fed on 

 tares. In estimating, therefore, the comparative nutritive powers 

 of these different proportions of vegetable principles in different 

 grasses, or other plants, proved by experience, it appears likewise 

 necessary to ascertain their degree of succulency, or the different 

 proportions of water and woody fibre combined in them, as it will 

 prove the proportion which the saline matters bear to the truly 

 nutritive as well as to the woody or indigestible portion of the 

 vegetable. The statements of the loss of weight which the 

 different grasses sustain in drying, given in the foregoing de- 

 tails of experiments, will assist to determine the above point 

 in most instances. I may be permitted to illustrate this by an 

 example : 



Tares are said to be more fattening than white clover, cock's- 

 foot grass, or meadow-fescue. 



3000 grains of the green herbage of — 



Woody or indiges- -.^ Nutritive 



tible Substance. ^^''- Matter. 



Common vetch, or tares (Ficia var. 



saiiva) consist of - - bbl ^xs. 2250 grs. 193 grs. 



White clover {Trifulium repem) - 470 - 2430 - 100 



Cock's-foot grQ.ss{Dact^i/lis glomerata) 1135 - 1740 - 125 



Meadow-fescue {Festuca pratetisis) - 1260 - 1590 - 150 



Hence, 1135 grains of the woody fibre of tares are combined 

 with - - . - 27^ grs. of saline matter; 



The same quantity of white clover is 



combined with - - - 33^f ditto. 



K 



