Book VI. 



SPURRY, BROOM, PARSLEY, &c. 



885 



in the 



order to guard against its being destroyed : as, during the beginning of the season, nature seems to be 

 solely employed about the great work of fructification, and it is not till near Midsummer that the whin 

 begins to push forth its wood-bearing branches, which advance with great luxuriance during the latter 

 part of the season only, it may happen, that if care be not taken to have the grass that springs up on the 

 field, before the whin begins to send out its shoots, eaten close down, that grass will acquire such a 

 luxuriance before the young branches of the whin begin to advance, as to overtop them, and choke them 

 entirely. Whoever, therefore, has a field under this particular crop, must be careful to advert to this cir- 

 cumstance, or, if the field be in good heart, he will infallibly lose it. The field therefore should be kept as 

 a pasture, bare as possible during the beginning of the season, and the 

 cattle should only be taken from it when the shoots of the whin begin 

 to advance with vigour. Under this management, he presumes, it 

 may be kept for many years, and yield full crops ; but, unless the 

 mowers be particularly attentive at the beginning, to cut it as low as 

 possible, it will very soon become impossible to cut the field with a 

 scythe, as the stumps will acquire so much strength as to break the 

 scythe when it happens to touch them. 



5632. The spurry (Spergule, Fr. ; Sp^rgula arvdnsis L., Jig. 781.) is 

 a diminutive annual weed, on dry sandy corn-lands, in most parts of 

 Europe. In Germany and the Netherlands, it is sown on the corn 

 stubbles, and in the intervals of time that occur between some crops 

 is fed with sheep. It may be sown and reaped in eight weeks, either 

 in autumn or spring. It is said to enrich the milk of cows, so as to 

 make it afford excellent butter ; and the mutton fed on it is preferable 

 to that fed on turnips. Hens eat spurry greedily, and it is supposed to 

 make them lay a great number of eggs. Whether in hay, or cut green, 

 or in pasture, Von Thaer observes, it is the most nourishing, in pro- 

 portion to its bulk, of all forage, and gives the best flavoured milk and 

 butter. It has been recommended to be cultivated in England ; but it 

 is not likely that such a plant can ever pay the expense of seed and labour in this country, even on the 

 poorest soil, or at all events, as Pro essor Martyn observes, we have many better plants for such soils. 

 5633. The common broom {GcnUt commun, Fr. ; Spartium sco^kx'wxva. L- ,fig. 1^2.) is cultivated in 

 southern parts of France, on the poorer 

 sorts of soil, in the same way as hemp, 

 for the purpose of stripping the bark 

 from it, and converting it into a kind 

 of thread. It is likewise cultivated in 

 these places as a winter-food for sheep, 

 and it is said they eat it with great 

 avidity, preferring it to many other 

 plants. It is, however, liable to pro- 

 duce diseases of the urinary passages, 

 by its diuretic qualities. It has been 

 recommended by Young to be culti- 

 vated in England as food for sheep 

 and horses, who are said to eat it 

 after they get accustomed to it j also 

 for thatch, ropes, besoms, food for 

 bees, fuel, and burning on the spot to 

 improve the soil. Its culture is the 

 same as that of the whin ; but very 

 peculiar, indeed, must be that situ- 

 ation, where its culture is attempted 

 for any of the above purposes. It is ! 

 a useful protection of game in plant- 

 ations, from which source abundance 

 may be had for besoms. The Spanish 

 broom (S. jiinceum L.,fig. 783.) might 

 te grown perhaps still more advantageously than the common species. 

 5v)SV The parsley {Persil coviviun, Fr. ; ^^pium Petrosellnum L.,fig. 784.) is a well known biennial 

 with a large sweet tap-root. It is a native of Sicily, but endures the 

 British winter like a native plant. It is sown along with clover and 

 grass seeds in some places, and especially in Lincolnshire, as a pre- 

 ventive of the rot in sheep. Fleet, of Hampshire, famous for curing 

 the rot in sheep, cultivates it largely with success : he sows half a 

 bushel to the acre, with a bushel of rye-grass with spring corn ; and he 

 finds that it lasts in the ground till it is permitted to seed. He feeds it 

 constantly ; it being excellent for sheep, and, when suffered to get 

 a-head, wonderfully fed upon by pigs in the autumn. After September, 

 it will not, he says, run to seed. When it was ploughed up he ob- 

 tained good oats. The land was poor, and in the next round of the 

 course, the clover was much the better for the parsley having been 

 sown or the clover omitted ; for in a field half parsley, half clover, when 

 the clover came again to be sown, it was excellent on the parsley half, 

 hut bad on the clover part In laying down land to grass, Hoyte, in 

 the fourth volume of Communications to the Board of Agriculture, 

 advises the sowing with twelve pounds of white clover, two pounds of 

 red clover, two pecks of rye- srrass, and two pounds of parsley to the 

 acre, as the parsley stands two" years, and by its diuretic qualities pre- 

 vents the sheep from dying of the red-water, which too luxuriant 

 clovers are apt to produce. In Scotland, also, it has been sown with 

 success, and greedily eaten by horses, cows, and hogs. The seed 

 requires a longer period to germinate than that of any other agn- 

 cultural plant, and might probably be advantageously prepared by 

 steeping and turning. It must be fresh, as two-year-old seed will not 

 grow. It is easily procured by the pound or bushel, from the seedsman, 

 rnd as easily raised by letting a few drills in a garden shoot into flower-stems. ,,/,- tho 



5635. Thlspirce-^a Ul?nari% L. ; queen of the meadows, Eeine dcs Pre* Fr. ; the Scabiosa ary^ns.s ; the 

 Hesperis matrondlis ; the Centaurea Jkcea, are sown in France along with theperenmalj^rasses and their 

 seeds may be had in the French seed shops, but they cannot be recommended in soils and climates where 

 any of the clovers or true grasses will thrive so as to form an abundant herbage. ^ ^ ^, 



5636. The wnllflotcer rcheiranthus Chehi lu.) is a well known garden flower, and at the same time^a 

 native, and very hardy pn dry soils. Like the parsley it is an antiseptic, and has been recommended to be 

 cultivated for the same punioses, and in the same manner. 



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