116 BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 
a pasture plant is somewhat analogous to white clover. That it is 
distinctly inferior to the clover need not be said, though this inferiority 
is probably somewhat less than has been commonly supposed. It will be 
sufficient for my present purpose to urge that, were it not for the exist- 
ence of the clovers, the dandelion, and several other weeds of like 
habits of growth, would probably be regarded as valuable fodder plants. 
It is noteworthy that the dandelion is not used as greens alone. In 
France and Sweden, and some other parts of Europe, its leaves are 
blanched and eaten as a salad. , . 
The bitter taste of dandelion leaves, especially at certain stages of 
their development, undoubtedly tends to make them distasteful to 
animals. But they are, nevertheless, often eaten, though somewhat 
different opinions upon this point have been expressed by good author- 
ities. Loudon, in his “ Encyclopedia of Plants,” says that swine are 
fond of the dandelion plant, and that goats will eat it; but that sheep 
and cows dislike it, and that horses refuse it. From the tables of Lin- 
neus’s experiments, as reported in United States Patent Office Report 
for 1847, p. 519, it would appear that the dandelion is eaten by swine, 
horses, and goats, and sometimes by neat-cattle, but not by sheep. 
Sprengel,* for his part, states most explicitly that the dandelion is 
readily eaten by all kinds of stock, and that neat-cattle and sheep are 
particularly fond of it. He states that oxen may be readily fattened 
upon it, that cows give an abundance of excellent milk when fed with 
it, and that it is an advantageous fodder for sheep. He urges that it 
is a matter of experience in some parts of Germany, that cows fed 
with hay from meadows in which many dandelion plants are to be 
found give particularly good milk, and that it has been consequently 
esteemed as a meadow plant, in spite of some difficulty in drying it to 
hay. He expresses surprise that the plant has not been more gener- 
ally cultivated as fodder. Young,f on the other hand, thought it 
extravagant to propose the dandelion as a plant proper for a cow 
pasture, and conjectured that, from haying been found among good 
plants, it has had qualities attributed to it which do not properly be- 
long to it. He would himself, however, have preferred dandelion for 
this purpose to the plantains, which were at one time esteemed. 
It is not unlikely that, as is the case with so many other weeds, the 
* Erdmann’s “Journal tech. und ekonom. Chemie,” 1829, 5, pp. 63, 284. 
+t Loudon’s “ Encyclopedia of Agriculture,” p. 883, § 5626. 
