1837.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



617 



soils, where the other more valuable cereals do 

 not prosper. 



In the north of Europe it is much tised as an 

 article of human diet, as well as food (or all kinds 

 of live stock. It yields a flour of remarkable 

 whiteness, and, on ihe continent, is very com- 

 monly mixed with that of rye or wheat, by both 

 public and private bakers. In EnfTJand it is some- 

 tiuT's used by bakers and contcciioners in the 

 manuf;icturc of their finest fancy articles ; but 

 never in common bread or oilier food. It has 

 been malted and tried in the manufacture of beer, 

 but the liquor, thou2;h palatable, is dangerously 

 heady and unwholesome. 



Vast quantities of this irrain are annually im- 

 ported into this country from Holland and other 

 northern countrii^s, for the use of the tjin dislille- 

 ries ; and who also buy all they can (ret of British 

 grou'th, which not beintr kiln-dried, as most of 

 the Dutch grain is found to he, is more valued. 



It is a ijood deal cultivated in some of the poor- 

 est gravelly districts in the south of England, but 

 only on fallows intended for wheat. In such light 

 sandy or gravelly countries, the fallow-fields are 

 thoroughly worked and cleaned by the first of 

 June: they are then drawn out into ridges, 

 ploughed and immediately sown. If convenient, 

 the dung intended for the fidlow is carted on, antl 

 spread and ploughed in, before the brank is sown; 

 or this work may be deferred till the crop is carried 

 in, in the autumn, just as it may suit the business 

 of the (arm. 



A bushel of seed is enough for an acre, and if 

 (aid on regularly, when the ground is loose and 

 warm, the plants soon make their appearance, 

 and grow with great rapidity; so that the ffround 

 is soon covered and shaded by a dense mass of 

 foliatje. ft begins flowering in July, and is sren- 

 erally fit to mow about the beginning of October. 

 It is usually cut with scythe and cradle ; and this 

 implement in the hands of an expert workman is 

 astonishingly expeditious. A good hand will cut 

 down fliur or five acres per day with apparent 

 ease. The scythe \s put out for the purpose ; and 

 though nothing is cut easier than the green suc- 

 culent stems, the scythe requires to be swung by 

 a tall and strong man. 



The crop is delivered from the scyth° in swathes, 

 as regularly as if laid by hand ; and if the weath- 

 er be fine, it quickly withers, and becomes fit to 

 be carried to the rick-yard or barn. If put to- 

 gether a little green or damp, it does not much signi- 

 fy ; for though ever so mouldv, the grain is never 

 damaged, and the more mouldy it is, the easier it 

 is thrashed. It ia the easiest of all barn-work for 

 the thrasher; as the slightest blow separates the 

 grain from the straw; and as the latter shriidvs 

 into very small bulk, is never bound, and on!v fit 

 for litter, it is soon out of the hand of the thrasher. 



Three or four quarters per acre is a fair crop ; 

 its price generally ranges with that of barley, 

 thouirh, when much wanted by the distillers, dou- 

 ble the price of barley is freely given. It has been 

 proved a thousand times over, that the crop of 

 wheat after brank is always better than if the fal- 

 low had been kept naked all summer, and wheth- 

 er the ground be dunged before or after the brank. 

 This crop not only shades the groimd, and smuth- 

 ers every weed, but leaves the soil in a fine mellow 

 state. In wet summers, when the fallow cannot 

 be cleaned early enough for a crop to be housed, a 



Vol. IV— 78 



cast of seed is sown in August, to be plouirhed in 

 as a dress for wheat ; but it is a very uusubs'antial 

 and fugitive kind of manure. 



The uses of brank to an English firmer are but 

 few. Horses should never touch it^ because it 

 heats and fills them full of bad humors. Neither 

 is it good for (aitening any kind of animal except 

 pigeons and poultry ; and it is the fitvorile food of 

 plieasan's, whe'her wild or tame. When jxiven 

 to store-pigs, it should only be in the proportion of 

 one-third to two of any other kind of corn ; that 

 being the greatest quantity that can be given with 

 safets^ If pigs be allowed to range the brank 

 stubble, they are very soon seized with delirium, 

 and a violent kind of madness, running into water, 

 rolling in mud, and crying in the utmost distress; 

 and if allowed to rcjieat their visit to that stubble, 

 flill away in condition most rapidly. 



From it being so much and so constantly used 

 in Ili;ssia and other parts of the continent, even 

 as bread-corn, without hurtful eflects, we must 

 suppose that its deliterious qualities are dissipated 

 by the oven, or in the process of cooking. But of 

 the eflects of brank grown in England, as stated 

 above, I have been witness to repeatedly ; and 

 every farmer in those drstricts where it is com- 

 monly raised, is equally aware of its hurtful ef- 

 fects if uncautiously used. 



Still it is a useful crop lor shading poor thin land, 

 if it can be sown after the fidlow is nerteclly clean- 

 ed, and be got off in lime to sow wheat. A buck- 

 wheat farmer is, however, always considered an 

 unfortunate man ; because the cultivation of it 

 shows the poverty of his land, and there are very 

 i'ew prosperous farmers upon land naturally poor. 

 But this is assuming that all gravelly or sandy 

 soils are steril, which is not universally the case. 

 I have seen much very productive sandv soils in 

 the county of Bedfijrd in Enirland, and in the 

 neighborhood of iVIusselburgh in Scotland. On 

 such land brank may be raised successfully, es- 

 pecially in ffivorable summers; and even if the 

 crop of grain be scanty, its service in keeping the 

 ground shaded, and fi'ee from weeds, will benefit 

 the succeeding crop, whatever it may be. I may 

 also mention, that there is anolher crop raised by 

 firmers on such soils, with the same view as that 

 I of sowing brank, namely, sowing trefoil or yellow 

 1 clover thickly on the (allow, as soon as it is com- 

 pletely cleaned. This rises and becomes a very 

 close sward before the beginninrr of September, at 

 i which time it is begun to be folded off' by sheep, 

 j leaving the staple in a clean and rich order for the 

 ! reception of the wheat seed. 



I I know not whether brank has ever been tried 



' on the north side of the Tweed, or even to the 



I northward of the Trent ; but succeeding in much 



I more nor hern lafiiudf^s, it certainly may have a 



j chance even in the colder parts of Britain. But 



I it must be considered, that a coniinental summer, 



j thouffh shorter, is much more unilbrmly warm 



' than in any island, thouirh (iirther to the south- 



I ward. It is the chan ^eahleness of the British cli- 



: mate, much more than its want of temperature, 



that is so fatal to tropical vegetables ; and as brank 



is as tender as the kidney-bean, a night (rost in 



the end of September, or early in October, v.'ould 



destroy a principal [)art of the crop. After the 



grain is set, however, no degree of (rost can dam- 



aone it, I have otlen cut and carried a good crop 



after every leaf has been killed by frost. 



