Food. 331 



could be readily brought, like oxen, to feed on cabbag-e, I cannot 



take upon me to determine, having- met with no decisive evidence 



upon this point. But the experiment is certainly well worth the 



trial, as the aggregate quantity of nutritious matter, found in this 



vegetable, is greater than that of the Swedish turnip, and very 



nearly equal to what is contained in any of the grasses. It must be 



observed, however, that the saccharine matter contained in cabbage, 



does not amount to half the quantity that is found in the Swedish 



turnip. Common turnips have been sometimes given to Horses, but 



not upon a scale sufficient to enable one, as far at least as I am 



acquainted with the facts, to draw any positive inference as to their 



nutritive properties. But there is good ground for supposing that in 



some districts, and under certain circumstances, they might be made 



to constitute a portion of their food, very advantageously ; for, though 



the whole quantity of nutritive matter in the common, falls very far 



short of the amount found in the Swedish turnip, yet the quantity 



of saccharine matter in the former, is very considerable, and must 



inevitably constitute the great basis of the nutritive properties which 



it is known to possess, as food for various sorts of cattle. 



But, the author of the philophical treatise on Horses, condemns 

 the use of turnips, in the most decided and unqualified terms, by 

 the following assertion. Page 84 — " Of potatoes and turnips as 

 food for Horses, more particularly if they labour, I have no other 

 idea than of their gross impropriety^ ; but I once turned a mare, lean 

 and woiked-down, into turnips, upon a rich sand in Essex, with a lot of 

 bullocks, and she came up nearly as fat as the beasts." I shall 

 make no further comment upon this extract, than merely by observing, 

 that the fact which is stated, seems to me to be in the very teeth of 

 the author's own hypothesis. 



