FURZE. 



GAD-FLY. 



that the whins have a great tendency to spread 

 over and injure the adjoining grounds. But 

 with a slight, well trimmed wall-fence of furze 

 these objections may easily be obviated. 



The formation and management of whin- 

 fences have been treated of by a number of 

 agricultural and botanical writers, as Lord 

 Kames, Dr. Anderson, Marshall, Billington in 

 his work On Planting, Dickson in his Modern 

 Hush., and others ; there is also an essay on 

 this subject in the Trans, of the High. Soc. vol. 

 v. p. 466, by Mr. W. Bell, and it is noticed in 

 a number of the County Reports. 



Furze has long been known as a plant highly 

 nutritious as food for horses, sheep, and cattle, 

 and has only been neglected from the supposed 

 difficulty of converting it into a state fit to be 

 comfortably eaten by domestic animals ; the 

 process of cutting, gathering, and bruising the 

 young shoots, when taken from the old stunted 

 bushes, being both laborious and expensive. 

 These difficulties are, however, comparatively 

 easily overcome when gorse is allowed the 

 privilege of a cultivated spot, and the most 

 worthless part of the farm is good enough for 

 it to vegetate upon. 



Respecting the merits of furze as a fodder, a 

 good deal has been written, as by Duhamel in 

 France, Evelyn in England, and Dr. Anderson 

 in Scotland ; and it is now extensively culti- 

 vated for this purpose by Mr. Attwood of Bir- 

 mingham, who has devoted an hundred acres 

 to French furze; ( U. provincialis, which is near- 

 ly allied to the common furze). These are 

 regularly mown with a scythe for a corres- 

 ponding number of milch cows*, and bmised in 

 a mill : mixed with chopped straw or hay, this 

 constitutes the entire food of his cows. Bruised 

 furze is also an excellent substitute for hay for 

 horses, and it is even asserted that they prefer 

 it to corn ; but they should at the same time 

 have oats and beans to counteract the relaxing 

 properties of the gorse. Dr. Anderson says 

 tlr.it when properly bruised, cattle are very 

 fond of it, and increase in fatness as fast as on 

 turnips. Cows yield as much milk as when 

 fed on grass, without any bad taste, and the 

 butter made on such food is very superior. 

 The small holder bruises the furze for his soli- 

 tary cow or pair of horses, in a trough, with a 

 wooden pounder, furnished at the lower end 

 with a sharp piece of iron. The farmer on a 

 large scale should have a mill worked by 

 horses or by water-power. In 1802 and 1803, 

 the Duke of Richmond fed his deer, sheep, and 

 horses extensively on whins. In the Peninsu- 

 lar war the forage consumed by the horses of 

 the British army was principally furze. Mr. 

 F. Tytler, in an account of experiments which 

 he made on feeding horses, between the years 

 1812 and 1815 (ZVoM. High. Soc. vol. v.), 

 states, that one of the chief kinds of food he 

 used was furze. But the principal use of furze 

 is for the purpose of fuel. In many pans of 

 Great Britain it forms the main dependence 

 for the supply of fagots for the poor man's 

 hearth and the baker's oven. The common 

 furze generally attains its full size in 4 years, 

 and it ought not to be cut more frequently. An 

 acre of land .sown with the French furze will 

 yield between* 4 and 5000 fagots, which are 

 G5 



chiefly consumed in the heating of ovens. The 

 fresh and dried flowers of this plant afford in 

 dyeing a fine yellow colour. The medicinal 

 qualities of furze are attenuant, diuretic, de- 

 termining to the skin, and occasioning nausea. 

 Furze may be propagated by seed sown from 

 February to May. Young plants or even slips 

 planted in Spring or October will grow readily. 

 It should be cut the year after sowing, begin- 

 ning in September or October; it will grow 

 again until Christmas, and be fit for use till 

 March. Besides the common furze there are 

 two other species : 



1. The dwarf whin or furze (U.nanus) which 

 is less common than the preceding, and only 

 grows to half the size. It blossoms chiefly in 

 autumn, has the leaves or spines shorter and 

 closer, and the branches decumbent, the flow- 

 ering ones more cylindrical and elongated; 

 and the flowers are paler. These points of 

 structure distinguish this species from the 

 others at first sight. Its value is estimated in 

 comparison to that of the common, as two to 

 one inferior. 



2. The French or Provence furze (U. pro- 

 vincialis), is a native of the South of Europe. 

 It closely resembles the common furze. In 

 Devonshire the common furze, and in some 

 other parts the dwarf furze, are frequently 

 called French furze. (Phillips'* Syl. Flor. vol. 

 i. p. 247 ; Brit. Hush. vol. iii., On Planting, p. 

 100; Eng. Flora, vol. iii. p. 265; Quart. Journ. 

 ofdgr. vol. ii. p. 731, vol. viii. p. 591 ; Willich's 

 Dom. jEncyc.) 



G. 



GAD-FLY, or BREEZE ((Estrus equi et 

 bovis, Lin.). Insects with spotted wings and a 

 yellow breast, which have a long proboscis, 

 with a sharp dart. These flies are particularly 

 troublesome to cattle by their sting or dart. 

 The horse-bot ((Estrus equi) deposits its eggs 

 on such parts of the horse as the animal can 

 reach with his tongue. They are thus licked 

 up, and introduced into the stomach ; are there 

 hatched and form bots. Another more torment- 

 ing fly of the same genus is the fundament-hot 

 (CE. hamorr holdalls), which lays its eggs on the 

 lips of the horse, causing so much irritation to 

 the animal, as to induce him to gallop and seek 

 refuge in the water. In Sweden, the grooms 

 are accustomed to clean the mouths and 

 throats of the horses daily with a peculiar kind 

 of brush, which prevents the larvae of this in- 

 sect getting into the stomach of the animaL 

 The ox-warble ((E. bovis) deposits its eggs on 

 the back of oxen, causing great torture to the 

 animal, and much agitation to the herd, if 

 many are attacked at once. The ovipositor 

 of the insect pierces the skin on the back of 

 the ox, and there drops the eggs. At the sea- 

 son when the gad-fly infests them, the harness 

 should be so managed as to allow the animals 

 to be easily let loose. The ovipositor of the 

 (E. bovis is furnished with teeth, and acts like 

 an augur or gimlet; and when this comes in 

 contact with a nerve of sensation, the oxen 

 seem to be driven almost to a state of mad- 

 ness ; the tail is stretched out, and they gallop 

 about the pasture, lowing and seeking for 



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