347 
is done by spade labour. 
An early account of teasel-growing in the British Isles is given 
in Johnson’s edition of “ Gerard’s Herball or Generall Historie of 
Plantes,” published in 1633. Two varieties are referred to, “tame” 
and “wild,” the former corresponding with the Fuller’s teasel of 
the present day. 
In 1640 John Parkinson, in his “Theatrum Botanicum,” refers 
to three kinds of teasels, “ garden or manured,” “ wild,” and “ cut- 
leaved.” _ According to present day nomenclature these may be 
“ The first is onely manured and sowen in gardens or fields for the 
clothmakers use, by raysing the wooll of cloth with the crooked 
prickles of the heads, make it fit for their sheeres to cut it smooth 
and thereby leave a fine nappe thereon pleasing to all.” 
Philip Miller, in the first edition of his “ Gardeners’ Dictionary,” 
published in 1731, recommends that teasels should be grown alone. 
The practice had evidently been followed of growing a thin crop 
of corn with the plants for the first year, such as is done in 
some places at the present time. He gives the yield as 150 staves 
to the acre and the price as 1s. a stave. 
The Rev. Wm. Hanbury, in vol. ii, p. 126, of his Complete Body 
of Gardening,” published in 1771, describes three kinds of teasels, 
“fullers,” “jagged-leaved,” and “small-leaved,” and gives the 
method of cultivation adopted for the first-named. The salient 
points are as follows: Seeds were to be sown broadcast at the 
rate of one to one and a half pecks to the acre in March. When 
the young plants were large enough to be seen well, they were 
to be thinned out to from 12 to 18 inches apart each way, and the 
ground between hoed over. Several subsequent cleanings, and 
thinning if necessary, were recommended, and the heads were to be 
cut during the second August of the plant’s life. A good crop tied 
in bundles was at that time worth 8/. an acre. 
A good account of teasel-growing in England is given by Johnson 
and Sowerby in “ Useful Plants of Great Britain,” pp. 139-140. 
Teasel cultivation in France is dealt with in the “Journal of the 
Royal Society of Arts” for December 15th, 1911, pp. 128-129; 
and a good account of teasel culture in the United States may 
be found in “ Bailey’s Cyclopedia of American Agriculture,” vol. u, 
pp. 636-638, 
The cultural methods adopted by Mr. North are as follows :— 
Land is hired from farmers for the cultivation of one crop at the 
rate of 61. per acre per year. Ground which will produce good 
wheat is considered most suitable for teasels, and, when possible, 
a crop of wheat is followed by teasels ; the ground being well wor 
but not manured. Seeds are drilled into the ground in March of 
one year for the succeeding year’s crop. In June the ground is 
