Book VI. 



BURNET, RIBWORT, &c. 



883 



Sect. IV. Various Plants (not Graminecr) winch are or may be cultivated as Herbage 



and for Hay. 



*5618. Among the inferior herbage plants which are occasionally cultivated, are burnet, 

 ribwort, furze, and spurry. Those which might be cultivated are very numerous, and in- 

 cludes several species of Ficia, iathyrus, Galega, Lotus, Trifdlium, Medicago, and others 

 of the native Leguminbsa?, or pea-like flowering plants ; and Achillea, Alchemilla 

 Cheiranthus, Spartium, A\>'ium, and a variety of others of different families. With the 

 exception of the chiccory and furze, there are none of these plants that deserve the atten- 

 tion of the professional farmer ; ribwort and burnet are occasionally sown ; but they are 

 of little value as hay plants, and in most pastures their place might be more advan- 

 tafeouslv occupied by one or other of the natural grasses. With respect to the other 

 plants enumerated, they have never been tried but by way of experiment, and are only 

 mentioned as resources under peculiar circumstances, and as a field of enquiry and exer- 

 tion for the amateur cultivator. 



5fil9. The burnet [Pimprenelle grande, Fr. ; Poterium Sanguisorba L. fig. 778.) is a native plant, a hardy 



perennial with compound leaves, blood coloured flowers, and a long 

 tap-root. It was originally brought into notice by Roque, a commer- 

 cial gardener, at Walliam green, near London, who found means to 

 procure the patronage of the Dublin and other societies to this plant, 

 which, being a novelty, attracted the attention and called forth the 

 eulogies of Arthur Young, and other leading agriculturists of the day. 

 Miller, however, at the time observed, that whoever will give them- 

 selves the trouble to examine the grounds where it naturally grows, 

 will find the plants left uneaten by the cattle, when the grass about 

 them has been cropped to the roots ; besides, in wet winters and on 

 '^P, strong land, the plants are of short duration, and therefore very unfit 

 for the purpose of pasture or hay, nor is the produce sufficient to tempt 

 any persons of skill to engage in its culture. 



5620. Curtis says of burnet, that it is one of those plants wnich it 

 has for some years past been attempted to introduce into agriculture ; 

 but not answering the farmer's expectation, it is now in a great degree 

 laid aside. Cattle are said not to be fond of it; nor is its produce suffi- 

 cient to answer the expense attending its culture. It is to be lamented 

 that persons do not pay a little attention to the nature of plants before 

 they so warmly recommend them. A small plant, scarcely ever met 

 wiiii but on hilly and chalky ground, and to which cattle in such situ- 

 ations do not show any particular attachment, is not likely to afford 

 better or more copious nourishment than the clovers and other plants 

 already in use. 



5621. According to Boys, in TJie Agricultural Survey of Kent, it 

 affords herbage in the winter and spring months, but is not much liked 

 either by cattle or sheep. 



5622. 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. 



5623 A correspondent in the Museum Rusticum, a work very favourable 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 appears 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 scarcely one head in flower ; whilst lucem, 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. 



5624. Those teho wish 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 w hite or yellow clover. 

 A bushel of seed is commonly sown to an acre. 



5625. The ribwort plantain [Plantain des Pres, Fr. ; Planthgo lanceolata L., fig. 779.) 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. 

 media. On dry soils it affords little herbage, and is often left un- 

 touched by cattle. Curtis, Withering, and other British botanists, 

 speak unfavourably of the ribwort as a pasture herb ; but Haller 

 attributes the richness of the milk in the Swiss dairies to the flavour 

 of this plant, and that of the Alchemilla, in the mountain pastures. 

 In rich moist or watered lands its herbage is more abundant, and its 

 flavour altered, — a circumstance not uncommon in the vegetable king- 

 dom, 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 is a scanty and rejected herbage, on poor dry soils, it is said 

 by Zappa of Milan to grow spontaneously in every meadow of Lom- 

 bardy, especially in those which are irrigated. It vegetates early, 

 flowers at the beginning of May, ripens in five weeks, and is cut with 

 the P6a 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, more especially in a cultivated state, 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. In Scotland it is a useful addition to the proper grasses on lands 

 to be pastured by sheep, at the rate of two or three head to the acre. 

 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. 



56*6. Younr savs, that he had long before recommended this plant for laying land to grass, and sowed 

 it on hi* own farm. At the same time, he thinks it extravagant to propose dandelion and sorrel as plants 



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