PREPARATION" OF THE LAND. 193 



may be most convenient. This species was discovered 

 on the Londonderry estate in the county Down, and 

 has been cultivated to some extent for forage purposes 

 both in Ireland and in Wales. Another species, the 

 Ulex provencialis French or Provence Gorse was in- 

 troduced some years ago into this country, but did not 

 succeed so well as the indigenous species ; and in a recent 

 work (Flore du Morbihan} by a French botanist, M. Le 

 Gall, a new species is described as being well adapted to 

 general cultivation, to which the name of U. Gallii has 

 been given. 



Although the gorse is naturally a very hardy plant, 

 and will grow in well-nigh every description of soils, still, 

 like all other plants, it has a certain individuality of char- 

 acter, and will succeed far better in some than in others ; 

 while its peculiar and most valuable feature its aptitude 

 of growth, and indeed natural selection of poor dry soils 

 and exposed places renders it a more suitable plant for 

 cultivation in poor than in rich soils, which can be always 

 more profitably occupied by other crops. Gravels, sands, 

 and the detrital soils of the chalk formation, are those 

 perhaps best suited to its natural growth. In any of these, 

 provided they be free from stagnant water, the plant will 

 thrive, and if moderate care be bestowed upon it, produce 

 a very remunerative crop. Indeed, it seems to hold the 

 same position in reference to the " forage crops " that the 

 Jerusalem artichoke does in reference to the " root crops," 

 namely, to occupy and give a good annual return from 

 lands of the poorest description, and which, under the 

 ordinary cropping of the farm, would hardly repay the 

 expenses of cultivation at all. Under such circumstances, 

 we cannot look upon gorse as a rotation crop, but merely 

 as a crop producing a return in soils and under conditions 

 of cultivation unsuitable to our regular farm plants. 



In preparing the land for this crop, the two principal 



