CHAP. u. TARES OR VETCHES. 939 



rolled for the convenience of mowing. Whether winter or spring tares 

 are to be cultivated, the land cannot be too clean, but successful crops 

 are grown on very foul land ; in fact, owing to the dense growth of the 

 crop, it is often sown on foul land to smother the couch and other weeds. 

 Many farmers maintain that it destroys couch ; whether this be so or 

 not, it certainly checks the growth and renders subsequent cleaning 

 more easy. The tares should not be cut till the pods are formed, 

 though long before they ripen. Both varieties of tares are of essential 

 service in soiling cattle of every description ; especially the winter tare, 

 which comes into use just when the turnip crops fail, and affords a 

 succulent food to ewes and lambs. Both are very nutritious, and supply 

 a large quantity of fodder of which all animals are fond. Pigs may be 

 fattened upon them. The milk of the cow is enriched and increased by 

 them, and they are extensively employed in the feeding of horses. They 

 do not require a rich soil, but are always finest where the soil contains 

 a fair quantity of nutritive matter ; clays, provided they are not too 

 wet, will carry them. A succession of sowings should be put down in 

 order to have a like succession of cuttings for forage in spring and early 

 summer. Vetches are usually sown down with a little rye, because the 

 latter affords to the stalks supports to keep the vetches off the ground, 

 and thus adds greatly to their produce. When the season delays oat 

 sowing for a crop, oats and tares may be sown for green fodder ; when 

 frost comes the remainder may be converted into silage. 



In some counties the winter tare is cultivated as pasturage for 

 horses, and is eaten off sufficiently early to admit of turnips being 

 raised the same year. In Sussex, spring tares have been found to 

 succeed after the winter tares have been got off, thus affording a 

 succession of rich pasture from May to November. They produce 

 abundance of seed, which the farmer will do well to collect, and 

 keep separate, for, on account of the perfect resemblance which the 

 seeds of the two varieties bear to each other, they are liable often to 

 become mixed. 



FUKZE (Ulex Europaeus, L., nat. ord. Leguminosse). It is only 

 within comparatively recent years that the furze, gorse, or whin, which 

 used to be regarded simply as an article of fuel, or a temporary 

 hedge, or a preserve for foxes, has been utilised as food for cattle. 



The furze was first brought into notice by Sir Edward Mostyn and 

 Mr. Wynn, who reared large studs of young horses, and fed them 

 almost wholly during the winter on the clippings of their extensive 

 gorse covers. The use of the plant was soon extended to cows and 

 sheep, and alwa} r s with good effect. There is not a case on record of 

 injury resulting from the use of furze. During the Peninsular war, 

 and in the early part of the winter of 1813, the horses of the light 

 cavalry subsisted for many weeks on gorse gathered by the men, and 

 chopped fine with their sabres ; and the animals not only continued in 

 excellent condition for service, but got fat on the food. 



Furze is seldom made an object of direct cultivation in any part of 

 the country, yet there can be no reason why it should not become so. 



