174 VEGETATING-PROCESS. 23. 



general as upon the tnrnep-crop. So long as 

 the barley keeps young and fucculent, they 

 feed promifcuoully ; but when it begins to run 

 up to ftem, they confine themfelves (if the 

 piece be too large to keep the whole of it un- 

 der) to particular parts ; which, by being kept 

 continually cropt as it fhoots, affords them a 

 frefli bite through the fummer ; fo that towards 

 the time of harvefl, when the crop begins to 

 change, patches of half an acre or an acre, 

 {till in a graffy (late, become confpicuoufly 

 fcattercd over the piece. 



'Whether the crop be of barley or of wheat, 

 it receives, throughout, material injury by 

 the tracks made acrofs it. 



Tfie clover, alfo, receives injury from W^/, 

 by the young heads being eaten down to the 

 crown in winter, and by the crop being check- 

 ed in thefpring ; thereby fuffcring the drought 

 to get polTeffion of the foil. But the clover- 

 crop receives flill greater injury from phsafants ; 

 which arc not content with the foliage, but 

 feed on the vitals of the plant; pecking out its 

 ** heart," as it la emphatically called : aamely, 

 the center of the crov/n of the root. 



It 



