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plants are less injured when cut, than when torn or 

 jagged with the teeth of the cattle, and no food is 

 wasted by being trodden down. They are likewise 

 obliged to feed without making selection; and in con- 

 sequence the whole food is consumed: the attachment, 

 or dislike to a particular kind of food exhibited by ani- 

 mals, offers no proof of its nutritive powers. Cattle 

 at first, refuse linseed cake, one of the most nutritive 

 substances on which they can be fed.* 



* For the following observations on the selection of different kinds of com- 

 mon food by sheep and cattle, I am obliged to Mr. George Sinclair. 



" Lolium perenne,rye grass. Sheep, eat this grass when it is in the early 

 stage of its growth^ in preference to most others; but after the seed approaches to- 

 wards perfection, they leave it for almost any other kind. A field in the Park of 

 "Woburn was laid down in two equal parts, one part wirh rye grass and white clo- 

 ver, and the other part with cock's-foot and red clover: from rhe spring till mid- 

 summer the sheep kept almost constantly on the rye gr^ss; but ifter that time 

 they left it, and. idhered with equal constancy to the eock's-foot during there* 

 mainderofthe season. 



Dactylh gomerata, cock's-foot. Oxen, horses, and sheep, eat this grass readi- 

 ly. The oxen continue to eat the straws and flowers, from the time of flowering, 

 till the time of perfecting the seed; this was exemplified in a striking manner in 

 the field before alluded to. The oxen generally kept to the cock's-foot and red 

 clover, and the sheep to the rye-grass and white clover. In the experiments pub- 

 lished in the Amoenitates Acsdemicae, by the pupils of Linnaeus, it is asserted, 

 that this grass is rejected by oxen; the above fact, however, is in contradiction 

 of it. 



Alopecurus pratensis, meadow fox-tail. Sheep and horses seem to have a 

 greater relish fof this grass than oxen. It delights in a soil of intermediate quality 

 as to moisture and dryness, and is very productive. In the w^ter-raeadow at 

 Priestley, it constitutes a considerable part of the produce of that excellent mea- 

 dow. It there keeps invariably possession of the top of the ridges, extending 

 generally about six feet from each side of the water course; the space below that 

 to where the ridge ends, is stocked with cock's-foot, and the rough stalked mea- 

 dow grass, Festuca pratensis, Festuca duriuscula, Agrostis ttolonifera, Agrostis pal' 

 ustris, and sweet-scented vernal grass, with a small admixture of some other 

 kinds. 



Phleum pratcnse, meadow cat s-tail. This grass is eaten without reserve, by 

 often, sheep, and horses. Dr. Pulteney fays; that it is disliked by sheep; but in 



