THE GORSE CROP. 



THE last of our leguminous ''forage crops" that we have 

 to describe is GOKSE, or WHINS, as it is more generally 

 termed in the northern parts of the kingdom. It is indi- 

 genous to this as well as to the other temperate countries 

 of Europe ; and is very commonly /met with growing at 

 the sides of roads, and occupying any waste places where 

 the soils are light and dry. Even those of the most 

 worthless descriptions, provided they possess the physical 

 characters named, are sufficient to provide a home for this 

 hardy plant. In the more northern parts of Germany it is less 

 commonly met with ; and on the Scandinavian side of the 

 Baltic, in Russia, and even in Poland, it ceases to appear. 



In many of the poor, hilly districts, both at home and 

 abroad, it has been known as a cattle food, and to a cer- 

 tain extent cultivated, for two or three centuries past, and 

 appears to have been introduced into more regular notice 

 as a forage plant at the beginning of the last century. In 

 a letter from Colonel Charles Cathcart to the Scottish 

 " Society for Improving in the Knowledge of Agriculture/' 

 dated London, April 6, 1725, we find it mentioned "that 

 the sowing of whins for feeding of cattle takes mightily 

 about London now," and that " this improvement comes 

 from Wales, where it has been practised these hundred 

 years/' Dr. Anderson, in his Essays, and other writers of 

 the last century, speak in favour of its suitability for cul- 

 tivation on poor soils and hilly districts, which thereby 

 may be made to produce not only a large amount of 

 valuable food materials for stock, but also a considerable 



