ITS CULTURE RECOMMENDED. 99 



a green. Injury has certainly been occasioned by 

 writers on agricultural affairs recommending, with- 

 out due inquiry, the culture of this or that crop ; 

 and I would not incur a censure that I blame in ano- 

 ther ; yet I cannot but suggest the possible profit 

 that might arise from the culture of this plant. If 

 foreigners derive sufficient encouragement to import 

 it, notwithstanding the charges of freight, port 

 duties, and various consequent expenses, why can 

 it not be grown with us, and afford superior remu- 

 neration, not having such deductions to diminish 

 the profits? The culture of it seems very simple, 

 the manner of conducting the crop, and harvesting 

 the product, attended with little trouble or risk. 

 Marshal* prefers a good soil ; others again say, that 

 it becomes stalky in a rich soil. With us it grows 

 luxuriantly, three or four feet high, on a thin, 

 stony, undressed soil, apparently the very station 

 it prefers ; and we have about us much land of this 

 kind, not intrinsically worth ten shillings an acre. 

 It might be rash to predict the amount of a crop 

 in such soils, but a ton to an acre is said to be but 

 a small allowance ; yet the produce of only this 

 quantity, which would procure in the market a 

 return of 10/. without any expenditure for manure, 

 no more manual labour after the seed is sown, for 

 nine months, than three thinnings, and cleanings 



* Rural Economy of Norfolk. 



