44 



but at an inferior price. The English divide them into three qual- 

 ities : kings, middlings, and scrubs. Tiie latter are saleable at a 

 low rate. 



They are a crrp which requires two years to come to mnturiij' ; 

 and they are liable to be killed by the winter. The soil should be a 

 deep, rich, moist loam. The cultivation should be as careful and thor- 

 ough, as for any garden crop. The English speak of a clayey soil as be- 

 ing most favorable to this crop, and advise rather against high manuring. 

 Our own cultivators are of a different opinion ; and say the ground 

 cannot be made too rich. The crops with us arc as large as the 

 English crops ; but our cultivators often raise a crop of carrots be- 

 tween the rows of teasels. 



The plants are sowed in rows, eighteen inches apart ; and the 

 plants are thinned to a distance of four inches in the row. They are 

 to be kept as clean as possible ; and in the spring every other row is 

 to be taken up and the j)lants left a foot apart in the row ; those 

 which are taken up may be transplanted. The transplanted roots are by 

 no means so [)rodticiive as those which remain where they were 

 sown. 



Teasels are deeined very good when they yield twenty burrs to a 

 stalk ; fifteen is considered a good crop. A careful farmer in this 

 county often gets fifty ; but his cultivation is very skilful. They are 

 to be gathered soon after the blossoms fall and while green, except- 

 ing what are reserved for seed. An industrious man w'ill cut six 

 thousand per day ; ten thousand are sometimes cut, but it is an extra- 

 ordinary day's work. 



The teasels are liable to be killed by winter, or rather by thawing 

 and freezing in the spring ; particularly from the snow-water freezing in 

 the heart of the plant. The snow, therefore, in the spring, is to be 

 carefully cleared aw^ay from the plant. The plants require to be pro- 

 tected in the winter by a covering of hemlock branches. Straw is 

 often used ; but it is apt to become a harbor for mice, which destroy 

 the plants. A farmer at Stockbridge recommends scattering some 

 grain among the plants, to divert the vermin from the teasels. He gives 

 it further, as his opinion, that the chance of success in the cultivation 

 is seventy-five in a hundred. The price has fluctuated in a n)ost ex- 

 traordinary manner ; but it is not likely to be so variable while the 

 intercourse with Europe remains free. They are very extensively 

 cultivated there. As they are somewhat a rare crop with us, I have 



