TAR 



59 



TAR 



nnd ticefre pounds. Without any explanation, as if it were 

 matter of notoriety, he contrasts suttle and arerdupois 

 weight, the former having 100 pounds to the hundred- 

 weight, the latter 112. In the rougher sort of goods, at 

 the same period, the tare was (as appears by the tables 

 they give) very often 12 pounds in 112: perhaps then the 

 hundredweight of 112 pounds was only an allowance for 

 the weight of the box, barrel, or other package 1 . 



TARES are a most important green crop in the improved 

 systems of agriculture, especially on heavy soils, where 

 they thrive best. When sown in autumn, with a small 

 sprinkling of wheat or rye, they cover the giound in spring, 

 and supply abundance of fodder in summer. A good crop 

 of tares is fully equal in value, if not superior, to one of 

 red clover : it conies off the ground in sufficient time to 

 give the land a hasty summer tillage, which is so useful 

 in destroying weeds, and to allow turnips to be sown in 

 the same season. They smother annual weeds if the crop 

 is plentiful, which should always be secured by an abun- 

 dant manuring : thus they are a good substitute for a 

 summer fallow in heavy soils, and amply repay the labour 

 and manure bestowed upon them. 



There are many species and varieties of tares ; but thai 

 which is found the best adapted for agricultural purposes 

 is the common tare (Vicia sativa\ of which there are two 

 principal varieties, very slightly differing in appearance, 

 one of which is hardy, and will stand the severest winters : 

 the other is more tender, and is therefore only sown in 

 sprint: ; but it has the advantage of vegetating more 

 rapidly, so that spring tares sown in March will be tit to 

 cut within a fortnight or three weeks after those which 

 were sown in autumn. By sowing them at regular inter- 

 vals from September to May, a succession of green tares 

 in perfection, that is, in 6loom, or when the pods me 

 formed, may be cut for several months, from May to Oc- 

 tober. A prudent farmer arranges his crops so that he 

 shall have artificial green food for his horses and cattle at 

 least six months in the year, by having tares fit to cut 

 between the first and second cut of clover. When there 

 are more tares than is absolutely required for this purpose, 

 and the weather permits, they make excellent hay ; or, if 

 the weather is not favourable, they are cut and given to 

 sheep, which are folded on the portion already cut. It 

 is an advantage to have portable racks for this purpose, 

 that the fodder may not be trod under foot a*hd wasted ; 

 or the tares may be placed between hurdles, tied two and 

 two, which form extemporaneous racks. It is prudent to 

 raise sufficient seed for another year ; but a crop of seed- 

 tares raised for sale is seldom profitable, as they greatly 

 exhaust the soil : and the price varies so much in dif- 

 ferent seasons, that it becomes too much of a specula- 

 tion for a farmer. The difficulty in distinguishing the seed 

 of the winter tare from the spring variety is so great, that 

 it should either be raised at home, or only purchased from 

 neighbours, or from the most respectable seedsmen. It 

 is a common practice with dealers to mix the seeds of the 

 Winter tares, after the time of sowing is past, with spring 

 tares, which are in request at a later period. The incon- 

 venience of this is. that they do not vegetate equally, and 

 consequently the winter tare is not in bloom when the 

 spring tare is fit for the scythe. Foreign tares, which are 

 imported in large quantities, are often the growth of 

 southern climates, and will not stand the winter ; or they 

 have been raised from seed sown in spring, so as to be 

 really spring tares. The difference is probably more owing 

 to habit than to any real botanical distinction between 

 them. When spring tares are sown in autumn instead of 

 winter tares, they may occasionally stand the frost, if not 

 severe ; but, in general, they rot on the ground 

 and never recover ; whereas the real hardy winter tares, 

 whose vegetation is slower, seem insensible to the severest 



In the early part, of summer green rye and tares, mixed, 

 are sold at a great price in large towns, for horses which 

 have, worked hard and been highly fed in winter. They 

 act as a gentle laxative, and cool the blood: near London, 

 w here e\ cry produce is forced with an abundance of 

 manure, tares are often fit to cut early in May, and the 

 land ' ately ploughed and planted with potatoes. 



or sown with mangel wurzel or ruta baga, which come 

 i iff in Septcml,. ibe'r, in time for wheat -sow intr. 



two V<MV profitable crops are jaised during the time 

 that the land, according to the old system, would have 



been fallow ; and at the same time it is left as clean, by 

 careful hoeing, as the best fallow would have made it. 



There are a great many species of tares or vetches, for 

 the terms are synonymous, many of which have been pro- 

 posed to be introduced into general cultivation ; but none 

 seem, on the whole, to be so well adapted to our climate 

 as the common tare : some have biennial and some pe- 

 rennial roots. The Vicia biennis has a strong stem and 

 large leaves, and grows four or five feet hisrh ; but it is not 

 so succulent as the common sort. It might, perhaps, by 

 cultivation and early cutting, become a useful early fodder, 

 and it may be worth while to make some experiments 

 with it. There are several species of tares which grow 

 wild in bushes and hedges ; but they have never been 

 cultivated in the fields, peihaps from the difficulty in col- 

 lecting the seeds, which shed as soon as they are ripe. Of 

 these, the Vicia craca appears most deserving of attention. 

 It bears its blue flower on stems or spikes longer than the 

 leaves, which are downy. It is very common in France 

 among wheat; and, although a decided weed there, it is 

 not much dreaded by the peasants, as it improves the 

 fodder greatly. It has the appearance of great luxuriance 

 in its growth, where it meets with a proper support. If 

 it were mixed with some plants with a strong stem, such 

 as the Bokhara clover (Melitotus arborea altissima), which 

 itself affords much fodder, it might probably be cultivated 

 to great advantage. 



In the south of France there is a white perennial vetch 

 or tare, called Vicia pisiformis, which is cultivated for its. 

 white seeds, of which soups are made, as with the pea and 

 lentil. It grows in very light soils; and, although indi- 

 genous to a southern climate, it is said not to be impatient 

 of frost. It has been called by some the Canadian lentil, 

 or the white tare. 



We shall only notice one more of the wild tares, which 

 is an annual ; it is called the yellow tare ( Vicia lutea). 

 It grows in stony soils and among bushes, is very branching, 

 and rises from one to two feet, high. From some experi- 

 ments made by the Agricultural Society of Versailles 

 several years ago, it would appear that this tare might be 

 cultivated with great advantage, and is even superior to 

 the common sort, because it can be cut two or three times 

 during the summer, and affords a very good pasture in 

 winter, which does not stop its vegetation : it will even 

 bloom in a mild winter. Although short, it is so thick upon 

 the ground, that its first cut is as heavy as that of the com- 

 mon tare, which is seldom worth cutting a second time. 



Tares should be sown on land which 'js well pul- 

 verised. If after wheat, the stubble should be ploughed 

 in with a deep furrow after a powerful scarifier has 

 gone over the land several time? to loosen it : five or 

 six cart-loads of stood farm-yard duns: should be ploughed 

 in. The tares should be drilled or dibbled, and the sur- 

 face well harrowed. The intervals should be hoed early 

 in spring : this will accelerate the growth, and insure a 

 complete covering of the ground. As soon as the tares 

 show the flower, they may be cut daily till the pods are 

 fully formed ; after this, any which remain uncut should 

 be made into hay or given to sheep ; for if the seeds are 

 allowed to swell,' the ground will be much exhausted. 

 Another piece should be ready to cut by this time, and 

 thus there may be a succession of tares and broad clover 

 from May to November. Tares may be sown as late as 

 August, on a barley or rye stubble, for sheep-feed early in 

 winter, or to be ploughed in to rot in the ground where 

 beans or peas are intended to be sown early in spring : 

 this is perhaps the cheapest mode of manuring the land, 

 the only expense being the seed ; for the tillage is ne- 

 cessary at all events. In light soils, tares and buckwheat 

 sown together immediately after barley or rye harvest, will 

 produce a considerable crop of vegetable matter, which 

 may be ploughed in in November. In favourable seasons, 

 wheat may be sown immediately after, without fearing the 

 effect of two white crops following each other ; for the 

 :ares and buckwheat intervening, by their shade, and the 

 wo ploughing of the ground, one when they are sown, 

 and the second when they are ploughed in, will entirely 

 lf>troy all weeds, and give to the soil that improvement, 

 w hich"will enable it to bear as good a crop of wheat as it: 

 would have done had it been sown the year after on a 

 clover ley. Clover, which could not be sown with the 

 >arley, from the foul state of the land, maybe sown among 

 he wheat in the next spring, when it is hoed for the 



