116 Essay on Sheep. 



^^ place only in the fourth stomach. The ali- 

 " ment is dry in the third stomach, not only 

 " when the animal is fed solely upon dry meat, 

 *' which has not furnished sufficient liquid, but 

 " also when attacked by some disease causing 

 " too great heat, and consequently too great 

 '* evaporation of the liquids necessary to diges- 

 " tion. In these cases, bad digestion, and the 

 " evils attending it, maybe prevented by giving 

 *' some green food at least once a day. 



^' At all times when the ground is not covered 

 *' with snow, sheep find upon it sufficient fresh 

 '* food to render it unnecessary to give them 

 '' any in the rack with their dry meat, in a bad 

 ^' season. I have often stopped in the midst of 

 *' a flock, in fields half covered with snow, 

 " where no grass whatever was to be seen ; the 

 ^* sheep, however, having their eyes near the 

 " ground, perceived the points of some leaves, 

 *' and scratched with their feet to find more of 

 " the plant; they then seized it with their teeth, 

 '* and sometimes pulled up the roots along with 

 '' the leaves. But when the snow entirely co~ 

 ^' vers the ground to a certain thickness, there 

 " is no other recourse than in the plants which 

 " arc high enough to enable the sheep easily 

 "to remove the snow which covers them. 

 " There arc many kinds of cabbages, such 



