Cultivation of Arable Land. Chicory After-management of. 397 



As a very large proportion of green food is afforded by this plant at a period 

 when it is not otherwife ealily obtained, its ufes in foiling cattle or other animals 

 are evident. 



In a comparative experiment of flail- feed ing eight beafts with tares and chicory, 

 it appears that, on putting to tares only from May 25 to June 21, they gained 

 49|ftonos; weighed again 6th July, gained 17 (tones : on this weighing they 

 were put to chicory, the tares and that both being given to them ; weighed again 

 i jth July, only one week afterwards, and had gained 27^ flones, or an ad vantage 

 of about 8s. 7d. per head per week.* 



Its utility for the purpofe of pafturage is fully mown by other ftatements. 



On an experiment being made with ten pounds of this feed over five acres, in a 

 good ftrong wet loamy foil, fown with barley among clover, trefoil, rib-grafs, bur- 

 net, &c. in order to remark in the pafturing whether (beep and cattle would eat 

 it as well as thofe other grafTes ; it was viewed during part of three years, particu 

 larly in the firfl autumn, after the barley was cut,when a fine fleece of herbage was 

 produced: the two following years it was mown by the farmer, and fed through 

 the latter. It proved by the refult that the chicory was always eaten by fheep, 

 cows, and fatting bullocks, as clofe to the ground as any of the other plants. 

 Though horfes were in the field, no remark was made whether it was eaten by 

 them ; but in the ftable foiling they ate it with avidity.^ 



Mr* Martin found it an excellent fummer pafturage for ftore fheep, whether 

 mixed with clover or alone, efpecially on dry foils and in dry fummers, as from its 

 tap root it receives nourimment from a great depth, affords a large quantity of 

 food, and bears eating clofe without any danger of drought affecting it : it mould 

 always be eaten clofe. It may not be proper in feeding paftures, as fat cattle muft 

 have abundance of food : for in fuch cafes it would fend up the feed-fhilks too much, 

 and they would not eat it, and by its luxuriant growth it might damage the finer 



gralFes.J 



On a bra/by foil, the Duke of Bedford found that the produce of an acre fown 

 with this food, thefirft year fupported feven new Leicefter fheep, of about 22lbs. a 

 quarter, for fix months ; and is of opinion that, on the fame land, no other artificial 

 grafs would have equalled it. 



There are fome other plants occafionally cut and ufed as a green food for cattle, 

 fuch as Buck-wheat ( Polygonum Fagopyrum) and Winter Barley, &c. 



* Annals of Agriculture, vol. XX. + Ibid. vol. XV. + Ibid. vol. XXVIII, 



$ Ibid. vol. XXVII I. 



