NOTES ON WORTHLESS GRASSES, ETC. 141 



Yellow Rattle {Rhinant/ms Crista-galU). — A parasitic 

 annual which preys on the roots of grasses and clovers in 

 many water-meadows and poor, damp pastures. Cattle dislike 

 it, and as the seeds are matured before meadows are usually 

 mown, there is full opportunity for its increase. Salt at the 

 rate of three or four hundredweight per acre, apphed to those 

 poi'tions of the pasture where YeUow Rattle abounds, wiU 

 greatly reduce and may entu'ely exterminate the plant. 



The plants already described are negatively objectionable, 

 being deficient in those quaUties which are essential in crops 

 intended for the support of animal life. Economic prin- 

 ciples demand that such plants shovJd be destroyed, and then* 

 places filled with herbage which contributes to the credit side 

 of the agricultm-al balance-sheet. 



The plants to which I have now to refer possess the 

 far more serious fault of containing active poisons, or of being 

 injurious in some other way, such as tainting milk and ren- 

 dering butter unsaleable. Cattle, and especially in-calf cows, 

 frequently show a predilection for unusual herbage, and the 

 death of valuable animals may be the first intimation that 

 watercourses, hedges, and ditches have not been kept fi-ee 

 from poisonous plants ; or the loss of a good market for Hulk 

 and butter may be almost equally disastrous. When cattle 

 are first turned out of their winter quarters, tufts of GarHc- 

 Mustard, Yellow Rocket, and Crow Garlic are very tempting ; 

 but they are all milk-tainting plants, and should not be 

 permitted to exist where live-stock have access. 



Buttercups {Bamuiculus acris and R. bulhosus). — These 

 two varieties are common in meadows and pastm-es, and in 

 their green state taint the milk of cows that eat them. The 

 volatile, acrid constituent is dissipated when the plants are 

 dried and made into hay. Of the two, R. hulbosus is less 

 acrid than R. acris, and stock are less disposed to eat the 

 latter, which flowers later in the season than the former. 



