918 



PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. 



III. 



ferred by some gentlemen for strength and warmth. They possess this advantage over Irish and other 

 linens, that their colour improves in wearing, while that of linen declines. English hemp, properly 

 manufactured, stands unrivalled in its strength, and is superior in this respect to the Russian. Consider- 

 able quantities of cloth are imported from Russia for sheeting, merely on account of its strength ; for it is 

 coarser at the price than linen : our hempen cloth, however, is preferable ; being stronger, from the 

 superior quality of the thread, and at the same time lighter in washing. The hemp raised in England is 

 not of so dry and spongy a nature as what we have from Russia and India, and therefore it requires a 

 smaller proportion of tar to manufacture it into cordage. Tar being cheaper than hemp, the rope-makers 

 prefer foreign hemp to ours ; because they can make a greater profit in working it : but cordage must 

 certainly be stronger in proportion as there is more hemp and less tar in it, provided there is a sufficient 

 quantity of the latter to unite the fibres. An oil extracted from the seeds of hemp is used in cookery in 

 Russia, and by painters in this country. The seeds themselves are reckoned a good food for poultry, and 

 are supposed to occasion hens to lay a greater quantity of eggs. Small birds in general are very fond of 

 them ; but they should be given to caged birds with caution, and mixed with other seeds. A very singular 

 effect is recorded, on very good authority, to have been sometimes produced by feeding bullfinches and 

 goldfinches on hempseed alone, or in too great quantity, that of changing the red and yellow on those 

 birds to a total blackness. 



5934. The hemp has few or no diseases. 



SUBSECT. 3. 



nogynia L 



Ital. 



799 



The Fuller's Thistle, or Teasel. Tiipsacus fullonum L. ; Tetrdndria Mo- 

 and Dipsdceee J. Chardon a foullon, Fr. ; Kardendistel, Ger. ; Dissaco, 

 and Cardencha, Span. (Jig. 799.) 



5935. The fuller's thistle is an herbaceous biennial, growing from four to six feet high ; 

 prickly or rough in the stem and leaves, and terminated by rough burr-like heads of 

 tlow^ers. It is a native of Britain, flowers in July, and ripens its seed in September. It 

 is cultivated in Essex and the west of England, for raising the nap upon woollen cloths 

 by means of the crooked awns or chaffs upon the heads ; which, in the wild sort, are said 

 to be less hooked. For this purpose they are fixed round the circumference of a cylinder, 

 which is made to turn round, and the cloth is held against them. In the Journal of a 

 Naturalist we are informed, that the teasel forms an article of culture in cottage gardens 

 in the clothing districts of Gloucestershire. 



5936. There are no varieties of the cultivated teasel, and the wild species is not mate- 

 rially different from it, and may be used in its stead, though its chaff is not quite so rigid. 



5937. The soils on which the teasel grows strongest are 

 deep loamy clays, not over-rich. The situation should be 

 rather elevated, airy, and exposed to the south. In a 

 rotation it may occupy the place of a green and corn crop, 



Vv \.^^t^Sl&M^. i/y as in the first year the plants are treated like turnips, and 

 in the second the crop is ripened. The soil should be 

 _ ^_ ploughed deep, and well comminuted by cross-plovighings, 



J'\^^^^^Ss^^^^^ j^L. or stirrings with pronged implements, as the cultivator. 



5938. The sowing season is the beginning of April : the 

 quantity of seed is from one peck to two pecks per acre, 



Mn1\ Jiji ^"'^fM ^W/ and in quality it should be fresh and plump. 



5939. The mode of solving is almost always broad-cast, but no crop is 

 better adapted for being grown in drills, as the plants require hoeing 

 and thinning. The drills may be either sown on ridgelets or a flat 

 surface, in the manner of turnips, or by ribbing. The distance between 

 the rows may be from eighteen inches to two feet In Essex, caraway 

 is commonly sown with the teaselerop ; but this is reckoned a bad 

 plan. 



5940. The after-culture of this crop consists the first 

 year in hoeing and stirring the soil, and in thinning out the 

 plants to the distance of one foot every way, if sown broad-cast, or to the distance of six 

 inches if sown in rows. Vacancies may be filled up by transplanting ; and a separate 

 plantation may be made with the thinnings, but these never attain the same vigour as the 

 seedlings. The culture in the second year consists also of hoeing, stirring, and weeding, 

 till the plants begin to shoot. 



5941. When the teasel is grown broad-cast, the intervals between the plants are dug by means of spades 

 which have long narrow blades, not more than about four inches in breadth, having the length of sixteen 

 or eighteen inches. With these the land is usually worked over in the intervals of the plants three or four 

 times during the summer months ; and in the course of the following winter, as about the latter end of 

 February, the land between the plants is to be again worked over by the narrow spades, care being taken 

 that none of the mould falls into the hearts of the plants Again about the middle of May, when they 

 begin to spindle, another digging over is given, the earth being raised round the root-stems of the plants, 

 in order to support and prevent them from being blown down by the wind. Some cultivators perform 

 more frequent diggings, that the ground may be rendered cleaner and more mellow; consequently the 

 growth of the plants will be the more effectually promoted. This business, in Essex, has usually the name 

 of spaddling, and is executed with great despatch by labourers accustomed to perform it. 



5942. The taking of the teasel crop, when no regard is had for seed, commences about 

 the middle of July, when the blossoms begin to fall from the top, or terminating heads 

 of flowers. 



5943. It is the best method to have the heads cut as they become ripe ; but the work is mostly executed 

 at three times, at the distance of about ten days or a fortnight from each other. It is performed by means 

 of a knife, contrived for the purpose, with a short blade and a string attached to the haft. This last is done 

 in order that it may be hung over the hand. A pair of strong gloves is likewise necessary. Thus prepared. 



hM^ 



