Book VI. 



RIBWORT, CHICCORY, &c. 



813 



^ 5066. According to Boys, in The Agrkultwal Survey of Kent, it afFords herbage in the winter and spring 

 months, but is not much liked either by cattle or sheep. 



5067. Dr. Anderson reports, that burnet retains its verdure pretty well during the winter months, but 

 affords such scanty crops, as hardly to be worth the attention of the farmer. 



5068. A correspondent in the Museum Iiusticu7n, a work very favorable to burnet, confesses with 

 reluctance that it is not deserving of any exalted character, but rather the contrary ; and that it is in no 

 degree to be compared to the common clover, which is cultivated at half the expense. It ajj|)ears from 

 some accounts there, that horses will not eat it at all, and that kine frequently will not take it without 

 great reluctance. Its slow growth is also made a great objection : being only about five inches high, and 

 having scarce one head in flower ; whilst lucern on the same soil, sown the same day and much thicker, 

 was eighteen or twenty inches in height. It is not meant by this, however, to discourage that laudable 

 spirit of improvement which so happily prevails at present ; but to caution such as introduce any new 

 plant, to make themselves well acquainted with its natural history. 



5069. Those xvho ivish to cultivate burnet as an herbage and hay plant, may treat 

 it exactly as directed for saintfoin ; as a pasture plant it is sown among the grasses 

 in the same way as white or yellow clover. A bushel of seed is commonly sown to an 

 acre. 



5070. The ribwort plantain, [Plantago lanceolata, L. Jig- 573.) is a hardy native 

 with a tuft of long-ribbed leaves springing from the crown 

 of the root, long naked flower-stems, and a long moniliform 

 tap-root. It abounds in dry soils, as do several other species 

 of plantain, especially the P. midea. On dry soils it 

 afFords little herbage, and is often left untouched by cattle. 

 Curtis, Withering, and other British botanists, speak un- 

 favorably of the ribwort as a pasture herbage ; but Haller^ 

 attributes the richness of the milk in the Swiss dairies 

 to the flavor of this plant, and alchemilla, in the mountain 

 pastures. In rich moist or watered lands, its herbage is 

 more abundant, and its flavor altered, a circumstance not 

 uncommon in the vegetable kingdom, but from which it does 

 not always follow that the plant so altered, is deserving of 

 culture. In conformity with this observation, though the 

 ribwort be a scanty and rejected herbage, on poor dry soils, 

 it is said by Zappa, of Milan, to grow spontaneously in 

 every meadow of Lombardy, especially in those which are 

 irrigated. It vegetates early, flowers at the beginning of 

 May, ripens in five weeks, and is cut with the poa trivialis ; the height of the leaves 

 is about one foot, and of the stalk a foot and a half; it multiplies itself much by the 

 seed and a little by the roots, which it continues for some time to reproduce. Ribwort 

 is eaten heartily by every sort of cattle, and in particular by cows, who like it most 

 in May, when it has great influence on the milk ; as the hay has on the flesh. 



Where kept well fed down by stock, there can be no doubt of its being a very good and 

 nourishing pasturage plant for both cattle and sheep ; but it is by no means adapted for 

 hay, or soiling. 



5071. Young says, that he had long before recommended this plant for laying land to grass, and 

 sowed it on his own farm. At the same time he thinks it extravagant to propose dandelion and sorrel, 

 as plants proper for a cow pasture ; and conjectures that those plants being found among good ones, 

 have qualities given them, which do not properly belong to them ; he is likewise inclined to make the 

 same conjecture in respect to narrow-leaved plantain, ribwort or rib-grass, and should even have pre- 

 ferred dandelion and sorrel to it : but he is cautious of opposing theory to practice. 



5072. Dr. Anderson states that narrow-leaved plantain or rib-grass is well liked by horses and cattle, 

 and yields a very good crop upon rich ground tending to dampness, if it is at the same time soft and 

 spongy ; but that upon any soil which has a tendency to bind, or upon dry ground, it furnishes a very 

 scanty crop. It has been made use of in some parts of Yorkshire as a summer grass. As an article of 

 pasturage for cattle and sheep it is there in high esteem : it is not however well eaten by horses; and as an 

 article of hay it is held to be detrimental to the crop ; retaining its sap an unusual length of time : 

 and when fully dry falls into a small compass, or is broken into fragments and left behind in the 

 field. 



5073. The culture of the plantain is the same as that of clover; its seed is about 

 the same size, and consequently the same proportion of it will sow an acre. 



5074. The chiccory iChicorium intybm), wild endive or succory, L. {Jig. 34.), has 

 long, thick, perpendicular roots, a tuft of endive or lettuce-looking leaves, and 

 when it shoots into flower its stems rise from one to three feet high, rigid, rouo-h, 

 branched, and clothed with leaves and blue flowers. It is found wild in dry cal- 

 careous soils in England and most parts of Europe of similar or greater temperature. 

 It is cultivated in France as an herbage and pasturage plant, and in Germany and 

 Flanders for its roots, from which a substitute for coffee is prepared. It was first culti- 

 vated in this country about 1780 by Arthur Young, who holds it in very high estimation. 

 It is of such consequence, he says, for different purposes of the farm, that on various 

 sorts of soil the farmer cannot, without its use, make the greatest possible profit. Where 

 it is intended to lay a field to grass for three, four, or six years, in order to rest the land, 

 or to increase the quantity of sheep food, there cannot, he thinks, be any hesitation in 

 using it. There is no plant to rival it. Lucern, says he, demands a rich soil, and will 



