Grass Experiments at Woburn. 
27 
eaten and what rejected by cattle, sheep, horses, goats, and 
swine. He observed that of 494 plants offered to cattle, 276 
species were eaten and 218 were rejected; of 387 species, sheep 
ate 246 and refused 141 ; and of 262 species, horses ate 50 and 
rejected 212. As a large proportion of the plants of Sweden 
are the same as those of England, Dr. Pulteney adapted Linne's 
essay to English readers, and published it in 1758. Since then 
careful observations have been made by Stillingfleet, Curtis, 
Sinclair, and others. And it was observations as to the 
selection by the sheep of plants in his pasture that led Mr. De 
Laune to employ and advocate the use of particular plants in 
laying down permanent pasture. 
One important result, often overlooked, of the persistent 
rejection of certain elements in a pasture is the advantage thus 
obtained by these rejected elements for rapid multiplication. 
While the favourite plants are eaten down, and can be detected 
only by a sharp eye in the somewhat uniform short grassy foliage, 
the rejected plants, like the buttercup, Yorkshire fog, and dogs- 
tail, flower and fruit, cast their seeds about, and when un- 
checked rapidly increase, to the injury of the pasture. The 
abundance of Yorkshire fog, dogstail, and ryegrass in some pas- 
tures is certainly due to this cause. Last autumn I examined 
a pasture white with bents, every one being the dry fruiting 
stalks of crested dogstail. The pasture was well stocked with 
sheep, whose food was represented by the short turf beneath the 
bents. The field was laid down six years ago with a mixture of 
seeds which contained one-eighth of a pound of dogstail to the 
acre. The persistent rejection of this grass and the annual 
ripening and self-sowing of its seeds have caused its extraordi- 
nary increase. An incautious observer would now, as has often 
been the case in the past, carry away the impression that what- 
ever good was in the j^asture was due to the presence of this 
predominant grass — the crested dogstail. Indeed, the autumn 
bents of our pastures, whether they are ryegrass, dogstail, 
Yorkshire fog, agrostis, or aira, are, when rightly understood, 
valuable indications of what to avoid in laying down pastures. 
With the view of treating, so far as possible, a portion of 
each plot as if it were eaten by stock, one half was cut when 
the plants were coming into flower, and the other half was 
allowed to seed before being cut. The result of this separate 
treatment, for the two years, is shown in the Table on page 28. 
No testimony is here given, nor could it have yet been 
expected, as to the influence of the different treatment of the 
two portions of the plots on the life of the grass. That will show 
itself only after some years' cultivation. 
