252 SYLVA FLORIFERA. 



Charles the Second, we are told by Evelyn, 

 that the cultivation of the common furze was 

 as profitable in Herefordshire, on their poor 

 land, as the best wheat land in England. He 

 adds, that " in Devonshire (the seat of the 

 best husbands in the world) they sow on 

 their worst land, well plowed, the seeds of 

 the rankest furze, which, in four or five years, 

 becomes a rich wood : no provender, as we 

 say, makes horses so hardy as the young tops 

 of these furzes ; no other wood so thick, nor 

 more excellent fuel. The young and tender 

 tops of furze, being a little bruised, and given 

 to a lean horse," he tells us, " will strangely 

 recover and plump him." M. Pirolle informs 

 us in Le Bon Jardinier for 1822, that in many 

 parts of France, particularly Normandy, the 

 furze-bush is ground or bruised in a cider- 

 mill, and given to their horses with advan- 

 tage. Goats, kine, and sheep, as well as horses, 

 feed upon the tender tops of furze with plea- 

 sure. It is at present much less sown for 

 hedges than it was some years back, because 

 it was found to become naked at bottom, 

 which might be prevented by keeping it cut 

 in the same manner as the quick-set. On 

 very poor hungry gravel or sandy land this 

 crop may still be turned to profit, as the 

 country house-wife will give a price for the 



