22 



MAN ON THE LANDSCAPE 



In contrast to woodiness, the protein and mineral rich forage 

 plants are succulent, at least during their youth or prime of life. This 

 is not to say that all succulent plants or succulent parts of plants are 

 rich in proteins and minerals. Species differ. Most young plants are 

 succulent, but in poor soil this stage is often brief; the roots skim 

 the cream off the meagre fertility available to them, and then the 

 plants quickly begin to develop woodiness or toughness. 



In the succulent stage cell walls are thin and these units are w r ell 

 filled with water and minerals in solution, giving a crisp quality to the 



PIG. 8. Foraging 1 hog's, using 1 some form of basic intelligence unknown to mod- 

 ern man, took the grain from this fertilized sector of a field in preference to 

 the remainder of the 40 acres. (Cliff Love farm, near Warrensburgr, Missouri). 



tissues so that they pop when broken or chewed. They are easy to eat 

 and digest, in contrast with more woody tissues. 



Albrecht 2 reports that farm animals will find and consume first 

 the vegetation on these parts of a field which have received fertilizer. 

 For instance, some Missouri hogs consistently traveled back and forth 

 between a limed and fertilized section of a cornfield and the feeding 

 troughs, ignoring the intervening corn until the fertilized area was 

 exhausted. (Fig. 8.) In another case cattle singled out unerringly 

 the barley in part of a field where a double dose of fertilizer had been 

 accidentally applied. (Fig. 9.) Again, cattle with 190 acres of virgin 

 prairie pasture to roam over confined their early spring grazing to a 

 few acres which had been limed eleven years previously, Albrecht 

 ascribes this selectivity to the greater amounts of nutrients in these 

 plants which the animal detects by taste or smell. However, and we 

 have not seen this idea advanced elsewhere, it may be due to the 



2 Albrecht, Wm. A., "Animals Kecognize Good Soil Treatment," Better Crops 

 With Plant Food Magazine, Vol. 23 (1939), pp. 20-21. 



