ARTIFICIAL COVERS. 143 



and prepared in every respect as for a crop of turnips. 

 The seed should then be sown by drill ; about seven 

 or ten pounds of seed to the acre is sufficient ; and it 

 should be kept well hoed and hand -weeded twice a 

 year, until the gorse has out-topped the grass and 

 weeds. From the nature of the soil being more genial 

 to this kind of plant, some covers will hold a fox in 

 three years, while others will scarcely hide a rabbit in 

 double that time ; April is the best month for sowing 

 the seed, which may be procured at any of the first-rate 

 seedsmen in town, at two shillings per pound ; and it 

 may not perhaps be generally known, that nearly all 

 the gorse seed sold in this country, is imported from 

 France ; some persons have recommended mixing 

 broom with the gorse in equal quantities, but it has 

 been found not to answer, as the broom comes to its 

 growth some years before the gorse, and consequently 

 requires cutting at an earlier period, which not being 

 practicable, it perishes, leaving large patches either 

 bare, or so thin and weak as to be of little use for the 

 purpose intended. I have occasionally seen a fox- 

 cover made by sowing the seed with a crop of oats, 

 beans, or wheat, this practice may do very well where 

 the soil is heathy and the plant indigenous, but in a 

 stiff clay, hke some of the Leicestershire country, it 

 must be nourished and cultivated exclusively, or the 

 labour and expense bestowed, will, in all probability, 

 end in a failure and disappointment. If the land is 

 wet, it should be well soughed through all the furrows, 

 or the plants will perish every where during the first 

 winter, excepting upon the tops of the lands when it 

 is dry and sound. Some covers have succeeded to 



