814 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



always be kept as long as it is productive ; but upon inferior land it is not an equal 

 object. Upon blowing sands, or upon any soil that is weak and poor and wants rest, 

 there is no plant, he supposes, that equals this. On such sort of blowing poor sandy 

 lands, as many districts abound with, especially in Norfolk and Suffolk, it will yield a 

 greater quantity of sheep food than any other plant at present in cultivation. On 

 fen and bog-lands and peat-soils, it also thrives to much profit. On all land where 

 clover from having been too often repeated is apt to fail, chiccory may be substituted 

 to great advantage. It does very well for soiling cattle both lean and fattening. 

 It is of excellent use for those who keep a large stock of swine ; and it does ex- 

 ceedingly well in an alternate system of grass and tillage, as it will last four, five, six, 

 and even more years ; but it should not be sown with any view of making hay in this 

 climate, though it forms a considerable proportion of many of the best meadows in the 

 south of France and in Lombardy. It has, however, he adds, been objected to, on the 

 grounds of its rising and becoming a vivacious weed in succeeding crops. And if this 

 circumstance be not guarded against, this will, he says, happen; but not more or so 

 much as with lucern. But who, he asks, ventures to forbid chiccory culture on account 

 of this quality, which is really founded on its merit : when the land is ploughed, says he, 

 only use a broad sharp share, and harrow in tares for feeding or soiling, or break it up 

 for turnips, and there is an end of the objection. 



5075. The culture of chiccory is the same as of clover. As the plant is grown in 

 gardens for culinary purposes, the seed may be procured in the seed shops, gathered in 

 many places from wild plants, or saved by the grower. It is small, flat, black, and 

 resembling that of lettuce; it should be procured fresh, and from eight to twelve pounds 

 an acre are usually sown. The culture of this plant for its roots has been noticed in 

 giving the outline of the agriculture of Flanders, and will be adverted to in a succeeding 

 Chapter. 



5076. The whin, furze, or gorze, ( Ulex europeus, L. Jig. 574.), is a well known shrub, 

 found wild on dry light soils, and in rather hilly situations, 

 in the warmer and more temperate parts of Europe, but 

 not in Sweden, or in Russia, or Poland, north of Cracow 

 and Casan. It has been known as a nourishing food for 

 cattle from a very early period, and has been sown in some 

 parts of England for that purpose and for fuel. Dr. An- 

 derson knows few plants that deserve the attention of the 

 farmer more than the whin. Horses are peculiarly fond 

 of it, so much so that some persons think they may be made 

 to perform hard work upon it, without any feeding of 

 grain ; but he thinks it tends more to fatten a horse than 

 to fit him for hard labor, and that therefore some grain should 

 be given with it where the work is severe. Cattle, he says, 

 eat it perfectly well when thoroughly bruised, and grow 

 as fat upon it as upon turnips ; but unless it be very well 

 bruised for them, thf y will not eat it freely, and the farmer 

 will be disappointed in his expectations. Cows that are 

 fed upon it yield nearly as much milk as while upon grass, which is free from any bad taste, 

 and the best winter-made butter he ever saw, was obtained from the milk of a cow that 

 was fed upon this plant. 'ITiis food should be made use of soon after being prepared. 

 Two bushels, with a proper allowance of hay, have been found to be sufficient for a day 

 for three horses performing the same labor as with corn. It also seemed useful to horses 

 laboring under broken -wind and grease. Poor hungry gravelly soils, which would not 

 have let for five shillings an acre, have also been rendered worth twenty shillings by 

 sowing them with furze-seed, in places where fuel has been scarce, this being frequently 

 used for heating ovens, burning lime and bricks, and also for drying malt ; but it is 

 not worth cultivating in countries where fuel of any kind is cheap, or upon such lands 

 as will produce good grass, corn, or other crops employed as the food of animals. 



5077. The culture of the whin is thus given by the same author. " A field of a good dry loamy land, 

 being well prepared, he sowed, along with a crop of barley, the seeds of the whin in the same way as 

 clover is usually sown, allowing at the rate of from fifteen to thirty jjounds of seed to the acre. The seeds, 

 if harrowetl in and rolled with the barley, quickly t:pring up and advance under the shelter of the barley 

 during the summer, and keep alive during the winter. Next sea.son, if the field has not a great tendency 

 to run to grass so as to choke them, they advance rapidly after Midsummer, so as to jjroduce a pretty 

 full crop before winter. This you may begin to cut with the scythe immediately after your clover fails, 

 and continue to cut it as it is wanted during the whole of the winter ; but it is supjwsed, that after 

 the month of February the taste of this plant alters, as it is in general believed that after that time 

 horses and cattle are no longer fond of it. He, however, observes, that never having had a sufficiency of 

 whins to serve longer than towards the middle of February, or beginning of March, he cannot assert the 

 fact from his own experience. He has frequently seen horses beating the whins with their hoofs, so as 

 to bruize the prickles, and tlien eat them, even in the months of April and May ; and he says, that sheep 

 which have been used to this food, certainly pick off the blossoms and the young pods at that season, and 

 probably the prickles also, so that it is possible the opinion may only be a vulgar error. This is, he 

 thinks, the best way of rearing whins as a crop for a winter food for cattle or horses. But for sheep, who 



