746 



VIC 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



V 1 C 



direction in which the land is to be ploughed, a sufficient 

 number of these hurdles, allowing one to five sheep, are set 

 close to it; at noon the shepherd mows another swathe, 

 throwing it to the hurdles, and the same at night: next morn- 

 ing, a swathe being first mown, the hurdles are again set; and 

 thus by mowing them once in the twenty-four hours, the 

 Tares will be eaten off clean, and the land equally benefited. 

 Many farmers in Middlesex, especially near London, grow 

 a few acres of Tares, for soiling horses and feeding milch 

 cows, and the culture of them has been extended every year, 

 since their importance has been understood. They may be 

 made the principal means of enabling the arable farmer to 

 support as much live-stock as the grazier. During the time 

 they occupy the ground, they produce more green food of 

 the best quality, than the finest pastures, and the ground 

 may be cleared of them in the month of June, in such 

 time as to admit of loamy sands producing a crop of clean 

 Turnips in the same year, and of clayey loams being prepared 

 for and sown with wheat. They support rattle well, and 

 will make both sheep and bullocks, of every size and breed, 

 fat; they suit every situation ; and flourish on all sorts of 

 soils. They do not depend on a market, and, above all, they 

 manure the land fit for the immediate reception of Turnips; 

 whereby a succession of green crops can be kept up, that 

 would fat a very increased quantity of live stock, and be the 

 means of raising, in situations the most distant from towns, 

 an abundance of dung. A judicious combination of Tares 

 with Turnips, Clover, and Saintfoin, may be the means of 

 rendering poor sheep-walks, downs, and wastes, of from ten 

 to thirty times their present value to the community. Pro- 

 pagation and Culture. If cultivated for seed, it should be 

 sown in rows at four feet distance, and should be dropped 

 thin in the rows ; for as the stalks send out branches extend- 

 ing to a great length, so when the plants are too close, the 

 branches will intermix, and mat so closely together as to rot 

 each other, by excluding the air. Weed them when they 

 come up, which should be performed with Dutch hoes, but 

 afterwards with hoeing-ploughs, which will save expense, 

 and serve to earth the plants in the same way as Pease and 

 Beans, which will greatly strengthen their stalks, and make 

 them and the leaves larger and more succulent, increasing 

 the quantity of the seed. If this practice be continued as 

 often as it may be found necessary to destroy the weeds in 

 summer, it will prepare the ground for any other crop; and 

 as this will be in no hazard of suffering from frost, it should 

 be preserved till the spring, when it is wanted for green feed; 

 though a part of the plants should be left for seed, because 

 those which are cut, if they do shoot again, will flower so 

 late in the summer, that unless the autumn proves very warm, 

 the seeds will not ripen ; therefore it will be a better way to 

 sow a sufficient quantity of seeds for this purpose, in a sepa- 

 rate spot of ground, because when the other is cut, the 

 ground may be ploughed for other crops ; and if in mild 

 seasons there may be so great plenty of other green feed as 

 not to want this, if the plants be ploughed into the ground 

 it will be a good dressing for other crops. Vetches are 

 generally sown at two seasons, one is in autumn, and the 

 other early in the spring ; but the best time is in August, for 

 the seeds which are sown then will come up soon, and the 

 plants will have time to get strength before winter, so they 

 will be in less danger of suffering by frost than those which 

 are sown later, and will be fit to cut for feed much earlier in 

 the spring, when green feed is most wanted ; and if they be 

 designed for seed, and not to be cut for fodder, those early 

 sown will come soon into flower, and ripen seeds early ; 

 hence they, may be cut and stacked in good weather, which 



is a great advantage, for those which ripen late are often 

 stacked or housed wet, and then the seeds sprout in the mow, 

 and are spoiled. The usual method of sowing them is in 

 broad-cast, ploughing them lightly in ; in this way the com- 

 mon allowance of seeds, for one acre of land, is two bushels, 

 but some sow two and a half, which may do well enough for 

 such as are designed to be cut for fodder in the spring, but 

 those sown for seeds should be sown in drills like Pease; in 

 which case less than half the quantity of seeds will be suffi- 

 cient, as the drills should be at least three feet apart, that 

 the hoe-plough may have room to go between them to de- 

 stroy the weeds, and earth up the plants ; for by this manage- 

 ment they will produce a much greater crop, and ripen 

 earlier in the season. The drills should be about the same 

 depth as those usually made for Pease, and the seeds scattered 

 about the same distance in the drills. They should be care- 

 fully covered as soon as sown, or the rooks will discover and 

 speedily devour them. On this account, those sown early in 

 autumn will be less exposed than those sown late, or in the 

 spring, because there is more food for rooks and pigeons in 

 the open fields at this season. The best time to sow them 

 is about the beginning of August, when the rains will soo.n 

 bring them forward. Towards the latter end of October the 

 plants will have acquired considerable strength, and should 

 be earthed up with the hoeing-plough in dry weather, in 

 doing which, observe to lay the earth up as high as possible 

 to the stems of the plants, so as not to cover their tops, 

 which will secure them against frost. The whole space of 

 ground between the rows should also be stirred, in order to 

 destroy the weeds ; which, if carefully performed in dry 

 weather, will lay the land clean till March ; at which time 

 the crop should be earthed a second time, and the ground 

 cleaned again between the rows, which will cause the plants 

 to grow vigorously, and in a little time they will spread so as 

 to meet, and cover the spaces ; whereas those sown in the 

 spring will not grow to half this size, and will be very late in 

 flowering. Some persons plough these plants into the ground 

 after they are fully grown, in order to manure the soi). 

 Where this is intended, there will be no necessity to place 

 them in drills, as above directed ; but it will in this case be 

 the best method to sow them in autumn, because they will 

 be fit to plough in much sooner the following year, so that 

 the land may be better prepared to receive the crops for 

 which it is intended. In some parts of France, and in Italy, 

 they are grown for feeding cattle while green, as in many 

 parts of England they are cultivated to feed cart-horses ; 

 though upon such laud as Lucern will thrive in, that would 

 better answer the same purpose. The plants suffered to 

 stand for seed should be cut soon after the pods change 

 brown; and when they are dry, they must be immediately 

 stacked, for if they are suffered to lie out in the field to 

 receive wet, and there comes one hot day after it, the pods 

 will most of them burst and cast out the seeds. When the 

 seeds have been threshed out, the haulm is esteemed very 

 good food for cattle, and some have recommended the seeds 

 for horses, asserting that they are as proper for those animals 

 as Beans ; which, if true, w'ill render them more valuable, 

 because they will grow on the lightest sandy land, where 

 Beans will not thrive, and may be very desirable in some 

 parts where the cultivation of Beans is not attempted. On 

 the south downs in Sussex, they substitute a double crop of 

 Tares, instead of a fallow of Wheat. They sow forward 

 Winter Tares, which are fed off late in the spring with ewes 

 and lambs ; they then plough and sow Summer Tares and 

 Rape, two bushels and a half of the first, and half a gallon of 

 the second ; this they feed off with their lambs, in time to 



