154 PRACTICAL NOTES ON GRASSES AND GRASS GROWING. 
many instances in which they have proved valuable, that we 
think it advisable to give them a place in our notes. In the 
country some of the poor people cook them as vegetables, 
whilst it is a well-known fact that gipsies show a marked liking 
for them, and, if the truth were known, a large quantity find 
their way into the spinage which is served up in London 
restaurants. With regard to agriculture, they form first-class 
food for pigs; in fact, we know of many cases where farmers 
encourage them for this particular purpose. 
So far as we are concerned we give our pigs nettles daily 
from May until after harvest. The younger the nettles are the 
more are they appreciated, and as the cutting of nettles 
modifies their growth, the crop is not a long lasting one. 
Like twitch, nettles grow from underground roots, and they 
spread by their roots as well as by their seed. A big bed of 
nettles can, if so desired, be forked up and, with after 
attention, easily destroyed; repeated cutling will also destroy 
them. 
One of our most valuable correspondents writes us, “that he 
considers nettles sometimes make good nurses to young grasses 
in a droughty season; also, that on waste ground, when left to 
grow freely, they almost exterminate docks and prepare the 
soil for natural grass, as they (the nettles) exhaust themselves 
by their own abundance.” 
Jarrold and Sons, Printers, Norwich, Yarmouth, and London. 
