CROPS. 273 



extents of ground which are left uncultivated, or kept merely as 

 preserves for game. It is singularly productive ; it requires to 

 be gathered only as it is wanted to be used ; and, when bruised, 

 it furnishes a most nutritious food. I shall give the directions 

 of one fanner in Worcestershire, who finds his account in culti 

 vating it pretty largely, and whose excellent farming I had the 

 pleasure of inspecting. 



It is used more extensively in Wales than in any other part 

 of the kingdom. It proves excellent food for horses and cows. 

 I have not learned that it has been used for sheep. The yield of 

 it is represented, even under unfavorable circumstances, to be from 

 eight to twelve tons, per acre, of green feed, and where the soil 

 is favorable, double that quantity. It may be cut in a year after 

 being sown ; but it is deemed advisable not to commence cut 

 ting it until it is two years old and then it may be cut every 

 year, and requires no manuring. Some prefer that it should be 

 cropped not oftener than once in two years ; but in that case, the 

 plant becomes woody and hard, and is with difficulty cut by a 

 scythe. 



There are two kinds of gorse ; but that which is called the 

 French gorse, is much preferred the other kind, being shorter, 

 browner, and much less succulent, is used only in times of ex 

 treme scarcity. It is advised to be sown in March or April, 

 and either broadcast, or drilled at a distance in the rows of from 

 eighteen to twenty-four inches. When sown on a side-hill, the 

 rows should be made oblique, rather than directly up and down 

 the hill. The young plants should be kept carefully weeded, as 

 weeds and couch grass are the great enemies to the successful 

 cultivation of the plant ; and they should be protected from 

 cattle. Sand, lime, ashes, and cinders, are applied as manure 

 to the plant ; but it grows well without manure. The intelligent 

 farmer, in Worcestershire, whose farm I had the pleasure of in 

 specting, Richard Spooner, Esq., M. P., grows it upon an 

 old woodland, cleared up, the soil of which is partly a burning- 

 gravel, partly a strong clay, but very dry at bottom, and hilly. 

 The product of half an acre of this land is, on an average, suf 

 ficient to keep a cow twenty weeks. On rich, loamy, dry land, 

 he informed me that, in his opinion, double the quantity might 

 be grown. He has now been in the habit of using it more than 

 twenty years 



