OTHER PASTURE PLANTS. 



63 



by worthless weeds, Yarrow can be sown to advantage. 

 The seed is very small, and so a little goes a long way. Its 

 cost is about 3s. 6d. per pound. 



Chicory {Cichorium intybus). — The root is thick, white 

 and somewhat like a parsnip, except that it has no transverse 

 crinkles. The leaf is large, tender, green, and slightly Uke 

 the leaf of dock. The flower stalks when ungrazed are about 

 three feet or three feet six inches high, and the flower the 

 size of a florin, with a light blue colour. 



Chicory is a perennial, chiefly grown for its roots, 

 which are dug and ground to mix with coffee. For this 

 purpose the plant is sown in drills and inter-cultivated, but 



two or three hundred acres is all 

 that the Dominion grows each 

 year. As a pasture plant Chicory 

 produces a rather small amount 

 of feed, which is, however, dis- 

 tinctly palatable. The great 

 virtue of the plant lies in the 

 penetrating power of its tap-root. 

 This grows to a depth of two 

 feet six inches or more, and wiU 

 burst its way straight through 

 the stiffest clays, so that it opens 

 up the subsoil, making its food 

 stuffs and water available to 

 the grasses and other weaker 

 rooted plants. The seed costs 

 about 2s. per pound. 



Sheep's Burnet {Poterium 

 sanguisorba) . — A perennial with strong tap-root. The 

 leaves are long and consist of many leaflets, 9 to 19 

 to each leaf. The leaflets are oval and coarsely toothed. 

 When crushed they smell strongly of cucumber. The 



Fig. 34. — Sheep's Burnet, 

 (after Fream). 



