292 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch. XXIV 



year 1835 thi'ee guineas per cwt. was the highest that could be obtained 

 for either sort ; yet the London seedsmen charge, by retail, as much as 

 3s. 6d. per lb. 



From wliatwe have thus stated regarding the production of root-crops, it 

 will be seen that they may be advantageously grown for the support of live- 

 stock upon every kind of soil except the wet and heavy clays. It is, there- 

 fore, evidently in the power of almost every farmer to produce a certain 

 quantity of one or the other species, if not of all ; and if to their intrinsic 

 value be added the improvement upon the land by the application of the 

 dung resulting from their consumption by cattle, we cannot too strenu- 

 ously urge upon their attention their still further increase, ])articularly upon 

 soils of a poor description, and under the present depressed prices of corn. 

 Their comparative fattening qualilies may be ranked in the following 

 order ; namely — 



1 Potatoes, 6 Cabbages, 



2 Parsnips, 7 Mangel wiirtzel, 



3 Carrots, 8 Yellow turnip, 



4 Swedish turnips, 9 Rape, 



5 Kohl-rabi, 10 Common turnip. 



Chapter XXIV. 

 ON ARTIFICIAL GRASSES. 



CLOVERS — RYE-GRASS — TARES — CHICCORY AND CORN-SPURREY. 



Having thus stated the chief details concerning the culture of those 

 roots which are commonly employed for forage, we now come to the 

 production of those crops termed artificial grasses, which are used for 

 the same purpose, and, whether consumed green, or in the form of hay, 

 not only enable the farmer to support his cattle, by soiling them without 

 the aid of natural grass, but also, by the manure thus raised, to maintain 

 more live-stock upon an arable farm, besides the product of the grain, than 

 upon an equal quantity of land solely under pasture. Many persons are, 

 indeed, not aware that since the adoption of this mixed species of hus- 

 bandry, some of our light soils, which previously were incapable of yielding 

 wheat, have been made to produce crops of corn equal in value to the fee- 

 simple of the land while it was in pasture. 



Botanists enumerate a great many varieties of pea-blossomed plants 

 under the names of " trefoil" and " melilot," but they all belong to the 

 same class, and the species chiefly cultivated in this country are those 

 commonly known as the " white and red clover," and the trefoil termed 

 •' cow or marle-grass," which, as well as rye-grass, we have already enu- 

 merated among our natural grasses*; but as they have been only men- 

 tioned as forming part of those species which are devoted to permanent 

 pasture, whereas they enter into our regular course of tillage crops, we 

 think it right to add some account of their cultivation. 



Most of them are indigenous to our climate, and the white clover is com- 

 monly found in calcareous soils, where its oily seeds will lie dormant for 



* bee vol. i. chap, xsxiii, pp. 51-1, 515. 



