290 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch. XXIII. 



partially used for that purpose on some farms, it is only in the island of 

 Jersey that it forms a regular part of the field-system. 



They are there given in a raw state to hogs and horned cattle ; the flesh 

 of the former they are said to render delicately wiiite, and the benefit de- 

 rived by the latter is, in the opinion of many graziers, nearly equal to 

 that obtained from oil-cake in point of the weight of flesh, and so superior 

 in the flavour, that in the island it always commands the highest price. 

 Cows fed upon them during the winter-months are stated to produce a 

 greater quantity of milk and butter than when fed upon potatoes, and of 

 flavour and colour equal to that of the most luxuriant grasses * ; but they 

 soon become cloyed with the parsnips alone, and the leaves must not be 

 used, as they impart a disagreeable taste. When given to horses they are 

 however thought to render them dull, and even to injure their sight t : the 

 former effect may indeed, if long persevered in, arise from their cloying 

 the appetite ; but of the latter, we know of no positive proof which can be 

 relied on. 



When carrots are given to horses, they, on the contrary, are found so 

 heartening a food, that in the sandlings of Suffolk, where they are very 

 extensively grown, the working cattle are fed upon them throughout 

 the winter, without any oats, and with but little hay, and yet are invariably 

 in even more healthy condition than when they have corn. The quantity 

 given is from four bushels to seven each horse per week ; it is, however, 

 more usually unlimited, and chopped into the manger with corn-chalF; but 

 probably the superiority of condition is rather to be ascribed to the evident 

 reason that carrots are very generally given to the farm-horses in as large 

 quantities as they will eat, while oats are invariably portioned out in a 

 manner very far short of plenty +. In gentlemen's stables a moderate 

 quantity of raw carrots is also well known to improve the horses' coats, 

 and is also thought to have a good effect upon tlieir wind. They impart 

 a rich colour as well as a fine flavour to the butter when given along with 

 hay to cows ; and they are highly beneficial to weanling calves, as well 

 as all young beasts and store cattle. 



SEED. 



The seed of both carrots and parsnips requires two years before it can 

 be brought to maturity ; and that of the carrot demands two sorts of soil 

 to bring it to perfection ; namely — rich sand to raise the roots in the first 

 year, and strong loam for the production of the seed in the second. 



The preparation of the soil for this second 2Jlanti?ig is thus conducted: 

 — soon after Michaelmas the roots are dug up ; the tops are cut off to the 



best brandy, of which a large manufactory was some years an;o established in 

 France, the pulp of the parsnip being afterwards used for tlie feeding of cattle. We 

 believe that an attempt of the same kind has lieen lately made in the Island of Guern- 

 sey ; and it is remarkable, that so long ago as the time of Oliver Cronawell, a patent was 

 taken out for distilling carrots and parsnips. See Houghton's Collections, vol. ii. p. 461 . 



* In tlie Island of Jersey, about 35 lbs. of parsnips are given daily to the dairy cows, 

 with hay, and the eream is more abundant than from an equal quantity of milk from cows 

 differently fed — 7 quarts producing as much as 17 oz. of tmtter. — Quayle's Gen. View of 

 the Norman Isles. Mr. Inglis, in his Account of the Channel Islands, also agrees in 

 the fine flavour which they impart to the beef. — Vol. i. p. 187. See also Le Hardy on 

 the Culture of Parsnips, Agric. Mag., No. xxxiii. 



I See the Observations of M. Le Brigaut, in "Corps d'Observ. de la Soc. d'Agric. de 

 Commerce & des Arts, etablie par les Ktats de Bretague,"' p. 141. 



t Young's Survey of Suffolk, 3rd edit., p. 135. 



