Book VI. 



PLANTS USED IN DOMESTIC ECONOMY. 



933 



sometimes to lay lands down with cole, under which the grass seeds are found to grow well. But this 

 sort of crop, as already observed, is most suited to freshly broken-up or burned lands, or to succeed early 

 peas, or such other green crops as are mowed for soiling cattle. 



6096. The leaves as a green food for sheep are scarcely surpassed by any other vegetable, in nutritious 

 properties, and in being agreeable to the taste of the animals ; but in quantity of produce, it is inferior to 

 both turnips and cabbages. The crops are fed off occasionally from the beginning of November to the 

 middle of April : being found of great value, in the first period, for fattening dry ewes, and all sorts of 

 old sheep ; and, in the latter, for supporting ewes and lambs. Tlie sheep are folded upon them in the 

 manner practised for turnips, in which way they are found to pay frcm 50s. to 60s. the acre ; that quantity 

 being sufficient for the support of ten sheep, for ten or twelve weeks, or longer, according to circum- 

 stances. Rape has been found, by experience, to be superior to turnips in fattening sheep, and in some 

 cases, even to be apt to destroy them by its fattening quality. In The Corrected Report of Lincolnshire 

 it is likewise observed, that rai)e grown on fresh land has the stem as brittle as glass, and is superior to 

 every other kind of food in fattening sheep : while that produced on old tillage land has the stem tough 

 and wiry, and containing comparatively little nourishment. 



6097. The Ssamu?u orientale {Sesame-, Fr. ; Sesamo, Ital.), Bignoniacete, is cultivated 

 in Italy for its seeds, which are eaten roasted like those of maize, boiled like those of the 

 millet, made into a coarse flour like those of the beech or buck wheat, but principally 

 bruised for an oil used as a substitute for butter. 



609S. Aino7ig other plants which may be cultivated by the Biitish farmer as oil plantSy 

 may be mentioned all the species of the ^rAssica family, the iSinapis or mustard family, 

 and the i?aphanus or radish family, with m.any others of the natural order of Crucifera. 

 The seeds of these plants, when they remain too long on the seedsman's hands for growing, 

 are sold either for crushing for oil, or grinding with mustard seed. This includes a good 

 deal of wild charlock and wild mustard seed, which is separated in the process of clean- 

 ing grain by the farmers among whose corn these plants abound, and sold to the seed 

 agents, who dispose of it to the oil or mustard millers. Various other Cruciferae, as 

 the Jl/yagrum sativum, i?aphanus chin^nsis van oleifer, both cultivated in Germany, the 

 jBrysimum, sisymbrium officinale, Turritis, &c. , might also be cultivated for both purposes. 



6099. IVie small or Jield poppy {Vapaver Rhoe^as ; Oilette, Fr.), and also the Maw seed 

 (p. somniferum, var. Pavot, i^r.), a variety of the garden poppy, are, as we have seen (467.), 

 cultivated on the Continent as oil plants ; the oil being esteemed in domestic economy 

 next to that of the olive. Other species might be grown for the same purpose. All 

 of them being annual plants require only to be sown on fine rich land in April ; thinned 

 out to six or eight inches' distance when they come up, according to the species ; kept 

 clear of weeds till they begin to run ; and to have their capsules as they ripen gathered 

 by hand and dried in the sun. 



6100. The su7iflower {Helidnthus cmnuus ; Turnesol, Fr. ; and Girasole, Ital.) has been 

 cultivated in Germany for its seeds, which are found to yield a good table oil ; its husks 

 are nourishing food for cattle. 



6101. 2Vie K'rachis hypogce'^a, Myagrum sativum, Hesperis matrondlis, B.djjhanus sativus 

 oleifer, and Rici7ius communis are cultivated in France as oil plants. 



Sect. IV. Plants used in Domestic Economy. 



6102. Among agricultural plants used in domestic economy, we include the Mustard, 

 Buck-ivheat or Beech-ivheat, Cress, Tobacco, Chiccory, and a Jew others ; with the exception 

 of the first, they are grown to a very small extent in Britain, and therefore our account 

 of them shall be proportionately concise. 



SuBSECT. 1. Mustard. Sinapis L. ; Tetradyndmia Siliqubsa L., and Cruciferee J. 

 Moutarde or Sineve, Fr. ; Senf, Ger. ; Senapa, Ital. ; and Mostaza, Span. 



6103. There are two species of mustard in cultivation in the fields, the white mustard 

 (Sinapis alba, ^^.805. a), and the black or common (Sinapis 

 nigra, b). Both are annuals, natives of Britain and most 

 parts of Europe, and cultivated there and in China, for an 

 unknown period. White mustard flowers in June, and 

 ripens its seeds in July. Black mustard is rather earlier. 

 Mustard is an exhausting crop, but profitable when the 

 soil answers, and especially in breaking up rich loamy 

 lands, as it comes oflf earlier, and allows time for preparing 

 the soil for wheat. In breaking up very rich grass lands, 

 three or four crops are sometimes taken in succession. It 

 cannot, however, be considered as a good general crop for 

 the farmer, even if there were a demand for it, as, like 

 most of the commercial plants, it yields little or no manure. 

 The culture of black or common mustard is by far the most 

 extensive, and is chiefly carried on in the county of Dur- 

 ham. The seed of the black mustard, like that of the 

 wild sort and also of the wild radish, if below the depth of 

 three or four inches, will remain in the ground for ages 

 without germinating : hence, when once introduced it is 



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