CHAPTER XU. 



THE FARM LIVESTOCK OF THE PERIOD. 



At the period now reached farmers had become alive to the 

 advantages derived from a thorough knowledge of the plants 

 most suitable for cattle feeding. The Swedish naturalists had 

 performed numerous valuable experiments with a view to dis- 

 cover what plants were eaten or rejected by the five most 

 common and most valuable kinds of domestic animals ; viz., 

 oxen, sheep, goats, horses, and swine. ^ 



Instinct had not been found an infallible guide on this head. 

 The author of Essays relating to Agriculture'^ instances cases 

 where an ox had refused to eat the turnip ; where sheep, ac- 

 customed to browse on whins, preferred them to more nourish- 

 ing foods ; and where animals who had fed all their lives in 

 the open fields frequently devoured pernicious plants when 

 turned into woodlands. Some crops, such as the culmiferous 

 species, were more profitable for animal food as hay than when 

 cu*- green ; others, like great-clover and lucerne, were, on the 

 contrary, better adapted to afford nourishment when cut and 

 used in the green state than when pastured upon or stored for 

 winter use. Confining his attention more especially to the 

 varieties of grass-seed used in meadows and pasture, this 

 author points out that rye-grass is one of those fodder plants 

 which possesses sufficient vitality to throw up young green 

 shoots during the milder intervals of an English winter. 

 Sheep's fescue possesses this quality to such an unusual degree 

 as to have attracted his attention. During the winter of 1773 



^ Pan Swecicus Amcenit. Acad., vol. iii. 



* Essays relating to Agriculture and Rural Affairs. James Anderson, 

 1775. 



260 



