36 THE TEASEL. 



archy, and the rival jealousies of foreign nations, would 

 have impeded, or prohibited, the necessary supply of 

 teasels, and thus rendered the domestic cultivation of 

 this indispensable plant a primary object. The manu- 

 factory of cloth was certainly carried on in England 

 during the reign of Richard I., perhaps in his father's 

 reign ; but it was probably not until after the tenth of 

 Edward III., that the teasel was cultivated to any extent 

 with us ; for about that time the exportation of English 

 wool was prohibited, and the wearing of foreign cloth 

 opposed by government. Flemish artisans were encour- 

 aged to settle in this country, and carry on their trade, 

 with every liberty and protection ; a regular mart was 

 established ; and the tuckers, or woollen weavers, be- 

 came an incorporated body ; particular towns began to 

 furnish peculiar colors Kendal, its green, Coventry, 

 its blue, Bristol, its red, &c. ; and from this period, I 

 think, we may date the cultivation of the teasel in 

 England. 



Hudson, in considering this species as indigenous, 

 directs us to hedges for our specimens ; but, though the 

 teasel is certainly found a wilding in some places astray 

 from cultivation, yet it is singular that with us it does 

 not wander from culture : though the seeds are scattered 

 about and swept from the barns where the heads are 

 dried into the yard, and vegetate in profusion on the 

 dung-heaps and the by-ways where dropped, yet I have 

 never observed it growing in the surrounding hedges. 



Teasels are cultivated in some of the strong clay- 

 lands of Wilts, Essex, Gloucester, and Somerset. The 

 latter county is supposed to have grown them earliest. 

 The manufacturers rather give the preference to those 

 of Gloucester, as lands repeatedly cropped are thought 

 not to produce them so good in some respects. Strong 

 land, thrown up as for wheat, and kept dry, affords the 

 best teasels. Weeding, draining, and other requisites, 

 demand a constant labor through great part of the year; 

 and hence a certain expense is incurred : but remune- 

 ration, loss, or great profit, circumstances must deter- 

 mine ; nor, perhaps, is there any article grown more 

 precarious or mutable in its returns. 



