C'-OCKSFOOT. ^69 



constantlv pnred as close ro the ground, as a favourite spot 

 in a pasture is by horses. 



Mr. Be VAN has found burnet to be the most whole- 

 some food for sheep, in a wet spring, and a certain remedy 

 for the flux. 



1802. He continues of the same opinion, and is never 

 without 20 acres of it. 



COCKSFOOT. 



Sir MoRDAUNT Martin, in 1788, observing, by 

 an experiment, that this grass grew four inches in less 

 than three days, determined to attend more particularly 

 to it : he remarked, that when sheep were let out of 

 a fold, they ran over every thing, to get at a baulk that 

 was full of it, and there ate it in preference to other 

 grasses. In some parts of Norfolk it is called cow's grass, 

 from their being very fond of it. He began to cidtivate it in 

 1794. It grows at Midsummer, in a drought, when every 

 thing else is burnt up. He sows it with nonsuch, instead 

 of ray-grass, and finds it much more profitable. 



Mr. Overman, observing the eagerness with which 

 sheep, when let into a field at Burnham-market that had 

 some cocksfoot grass in it, ran over ray-grass, and every 

 thing else, to get a bite of this plant, thought it worth 

 cultivating, and sowed about an acre, on tlie dry gravelly 

 part of his farm, just above the marsh. This spot was 

 the only one, in a large field, that did not burn in the se- 

 vere drought of 1800, and convinced him of the excel- 

 lence of the grass. 



This gentleman, shewing me a beautiful crop of drilled 

 wheat, which could scarcely be estimated at less than four 

 quarters and a half per acre, pointed out a part of the field, 

 superior, if any thing, to the rest ; and said it was an experi- 

 ment on the cocksfoot grass : he had found it an excellent 

 plant for sheep, but having examined the roots, perceived 

 them t(»be so strong, that he had some suspicion they 



niight 



