532 ON CONCRETIONS IN THE RUMEN. 
to say, that it evidently points to greater improvements in one of 
the most important branches of agriculture, as it relates to the 
economy of cattle ; more than this can scarcely be expected from 
its assistance. It is to the intelligent grazier or gentleman well 
versed in the knowledge of our own plants, fraught with careful 
observation, and practised in the economy of cattle, that the rest 
must be owing. Nothing but the want of botanic knowledge, in 
such gentlemen as these, will deprive us of the benefit that might 
otherwise accrue from reducing this knowledge to practice. In 
the hands of such persons as are capable of making the most pro¬ 
per and judicious application of it, numerous advantages will 
spring. The eradicating from pastures poisonous and useless 
weeds will be one, although indeed no mean one, among many 
others. Farther, indeed, than this, the husbandman will be en¬ 
abled to suit his several sorts of cattle to the different pastures in 
his possession more to their, and, frequently, to his own advan¬ 
tage. Even in marshy pastures, where it would be a difficult if 
not an impossible task to mend the soil, the growth of many plants 
might be increased, and the seeds of others sown, which are 
highly acceptable to different kinds of cattle. By degrees, too, 
we should undoubtedly be led to the cultivation of other vege¬ 
tables, besides clover, as fodder to cattle ; and the foregoing ob¬ 
servation implies, that this might be done in soils and situations 
where clover would not thrive. Our hay, too, in consequence of 
these improvements, would be much better; for although our 
cattle will eat those plants among the hay which they reject 
while green and growing, yet it does not follow that all are in 
their dried state equally nutritive and wholesome. The benefits, 
in fine, which would result from a diligent and general pursuit of 
these hints would be various and extensive, and many more, in all 
probability, in the course of years, than can at present be 
thought of. 
ON THE EARLY FORMATION OF CONCRETIONS 
IN THE RUMEN. 
Bj/ Mr. Geo. Linton, V.S.j Witton-le-Wear, 
Bishop^s Auckland. 
The subject of this narrative w'as a calf, three weeks old, 
which w^as taken ill, and, being in the same village, I was called 
to see it. On examination, I found its rumen very much dis¬ 
tended. I ordered it to have three pounds of blood taken from it, 
and gave it sulphate of soda Sjiii, ginger 5ss. After this treat- 
