THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



327 



mostly composed of the earthy particles collected by the 

 waters I'rom the neighbouring grounds, and deposited in 

 the hollow places where the waters congregate, and lose 

 the power of further progress. Leaves of trees and 

 various collections of animal and vegetable matters will 

 be added in many situations, and the composition of 

 mud will in every case be regulated by the nature of the 

 substances which come within the reach of the waters 

 that flow into the pond. In the vicinity of woods much 

 vegetable matter will be found in mud ; wliile in open 

 situations, earths and sands will be the principal mate- 

 rials, washed down and carried along by the rains and 

 currents. Ponds are most conveniently emptied in 

 summer, when the mud may be laid in a heap, in a con- 

 venient place, and be frequently turned over, in order 

 to bring into life and destroy the seeds of vegetables 

 that may have been deposited by the water, and which 

 will lie many years in a dormant state, and again vege- 

 tate on being exposed to air and light. When this pur- 

 pose has been effected, a mixture of slaked or mild lime 

 may be added ; and after being again turned over and 



mixed, the heap will be ready for being applied as a top- 

 dressing, and may be used at the rate of 20 to .30 cart- 

 loads to an acre of grass land, and must be bush- 

 harrowed and rolled during the first dry weather in the 

 spring after application. The materials being finely 

 pulverized, spreading from the carts is the best method, 

 without laying heaps on the ground, which are not easily 

 spread out in the bottoms, and raise a tuft of herbage. 

 Mud without any mixture, and in a fresh slate, is very 

 beneficially applied in top-dressing grass lands, though 

 the moist condition is inconvenient, in forming lumps 

 and in adhering less or more to other substances. It is 

 better to allow a time to dry, to turn the mass repeat- 

 edly in order to be well mixed, and to add a quantity of 

 mild lime to produce a variety of composition. The 

 earths in mud are in a reduced condition, and do not 

 require the caustic solvent of hot lime, as it would cor- 

 rode and dissipate the vegetable matter. Mud is a 

 weak body, as the cohesion has been wholly destroyed 

 by the suspension in water ; the lime combines the 

 action, and produces the results. 



UTILITY OF THE NETTLE TRIBE. 



In those good old times, which every one regrets in sen- 

 timent, and rejoices to have escaped in heart, nettletops did 

 duty for our modern asparagus, and nettle-tea was drunk 

 while Chinese bohea was unknown ; and both were pro- 

 nounced good by the beniffhteil old f/oui-me(s who found a 

 full savour of rich meaning for their loving tupj in the blue 

 fl iwers of the borage, and made spinacli of GooJking- 

 lienry, and a most detectable sauce of Jack-by-thc-Hedgo. 

 AVho, then, would have thought that not only would that 

 " wicked weed," the hop, so cursed liy Harry VI , be one 

 day ranked as of the nettle tribe, but that hemp and fi^^s, 

 fustic-weod and mulberries, the bread fruit of the South Sea 

 Islands, and the jack-fruit, the upas of Java, the banyan of 

 India, the hya-hya, palo di vaca, or cow-tree of Demorara 

 (though some do say that tliis be a dog's-tooth, and no 

 nettle after all), and the caoutchouc trees of America, 

 should be introduced into these dominions, and classed as 

 kinsmen with the rough-leaved herb, then principally re- 

 garded as a sovereign remedy agaiust scurvy, gout, jaundice, 

 and lucmorrhage ! If our forefathers had heard of nettle- 

 trees which gave bread, and milk, and paper, which last 

 should be also a capital substitute for cotton cloth ; if thej' 

 could have known tiiat the luscious purple figs, which only 

 thrones and principalities might taste and enjoy, and the 

 black ripe mulberries which lost their purity if touched, 

 though ever so lightly, were to be classed as of the same 

 family with the roadside nettle, they would assuredly have 

 cropped the ears of the propounderof these two mysteries — 

 one ear for lies, and the other for slander. Sir Walter 

 Raleigh and Bruce were both called liars for ksj wonderful 

 tales tiian these. 



The nettle tribe 'u very valuable, and the common-nettle 

 itself has many more avadable uses than one would imagine. 

 Its seeds are good ioT the c/oitre ; its stings are good for 

 paralysis. lu Scotland nettle-cloth is by no means uncom- 

 mon, and is exceedingly durable and beautiful ; while Ger- 

 many calls her muslin still " Nesseltuch" (nettle-cloth), 

 thus betraying its origin ; and France makes very passable 

 nettle paper. Greece stains her Easter eggs green with 

 nettle dye — for nettle loaves dye green — and nettle roots 

 treated with alum give a very fair yellow ; and both are 

 still used for the woollen cloths of Wales. Nettle juice 

 makes a good rennet; and dried nettles are great promoters 

 of cow's milk. In many places in England, indeed, a pint 

 of milk is paid as an equivalent for a day's feed of nettles in 

 April or May ; and Russia, Sweden, and Holland cultivate 

 them solely for dairy purposes. 



In the uorth of Eaglaud young nettle leaves are given to 

 pigs; and, chopped up fme, they are mixed with the food of 

 all the barn-door roultry, but especially with that of young 

 turkeys, who die if they have uo nettles to eat, and die all 

 tha sinie if they wander into a bed of them aud are stung. 



Nettles help to make good hotbeds ; aud ou every thriving 

 strawberry bank there will they also be, helping to make good 

 land, and of signal service to the fruit. The nettle has another 

 claim to our gratitude, for it nourishes about thirty species of 

 insects; the caterpillars of the peacock butterfly, the red ad- 

 miral, the tortoise-shell, aud that briliaat-winged fluttering 

 jewel, the Nymplialis (jeinmatus, being among theni. These 

 are some of the good qualities and gr&cious offices of our com- 

 mon nettle of the lanes and fields ; but the foreign species are 

 even of higher uses. 



In Kamtschatka they make fishing-lines of nettles ; and the 

 Hindoo grass cloth, called " chn ma," is from a nettle, as is 

 also the Chinese grass cloth ; this last from the snowy nettle 

 (Bcelimeria nicleij. The bread fruit tree (Artocarpus incisi- 

 folia) not onh' yields a most delicious food, but also gives a 

 beautiful kind" of cloth for the South Sea islanders ; but the 

 best cloth made from this genus is got from the Broussonetia 

 papyrifera, from which the Chinese and Japanese get also an 

 excellent quality of paper. This paper is taken from the outer 

 bark, and in Japan serves for all sorts of common uses. Cur- 

 tains, umbrellas, clothes, pocket-handkerchiefs, hats and other 

 like articles, are made of it, as also a juice used as a glue in the 

 gilding of paper and leather. The nettle of Timor is not quite 

 so beneficent to man ; called daoun seimi, or the devil's leaf. 

 Its sting produces effects which aometimes last for a whole year, 

 and sometimes result in death ; and there is no antidote like 

 our dock to our nettle — ' nettle iti, dock out" — which can be 

 used to allay the smart or draw out the poison. The daoua 

 setau, would be no trifle in among our strawberry beds, or 

 borderiuK the hedge rows, where the wild flowers are waiting 

 to be plucked. 



Think of our beer without one of the nettle tribe ! What 

 should we do now without heps ? Yet hops are nettles — 

 " wicked weeds," in truth, but pleasant wickedness. Ale was 

 originally barley brewed with certain herbs, such as sweet- 

 gale, bog myrtle, aleboof, or broom twigs ; beer, barley brewed 

 with hops. The novelty raised a storm— all novelties do. 

 " Hops and heresy came together," says Dr. King ; and the 

 weed that was named after a wolf could not, by any possibility, 

 be good for man. Humulus liipulus is the botanical name of 

 the hop ; the first from the rich soil in which alone it thrives ; 

 the second from some fancied connection with those uncom- 

 fortable gentlemen, the wolves ; rendered a little more intelli- 

 gible by the Welsh name of "wolf's spoon." Ale, that is, 

 malt without hops, but with wormwood instead, is still brewed 

 at All Souls, Oxford, where the College's silver ale-cups are 

 called " ox eyes," or "ox eyesof wcrmwood ;" and the Isle of 

 Skye people brew ale of one part malt and two of heather 

 tops. The Egyptians flavoured their zythus, or barley-wine, 

 with lupin, skirret, and a certain Assyrian plant, which, per- 

 haps, came to much the same thing as our mslt and hops. — 

 Chambers' Journal. 



