TARE. 



lir.jrs or tlirri- pounds, at from about fcvon pounds ten 

 (IiiUings to nine pounds the acre. And it is found that the 

 fpring tan.-crops are lighter, and moll liable to be injured by 

 a dry fcafon. 



The produce in feed is likewife found to be confidcrable, 

 bring by fome ftated at from three to fix facks ; but in other 

 inftances forty bufticls or more have been obtained from the 

 acre. It has been fuc;gefted, that this fort of feed is 

 greedily devoured by pigeons, and that it may probably be 

 ufrd for poultry with advantage and profit, as being a very 

 ftimulant fort of food in the produftion of eggs. 



In refpcft to the application of taie-crops, it has been well 

 remarked by a late writer, that there can be little hefitation 

 in pronouncing that of foiling them with horfes or other 

 forts of live-ftock on the farm, as the moft advantageous and 

 beneficial method of any whi jh can be adopted for them. 



It has, however, been adviied by the author of the Agri- 

 cultural Survey of the above diftrift of Middlefex, that the 

 farmer's ftock fhould be wholly fupported on them, from 

 the time they begin to blow till the bloiToms begin to fall 

 off, and the formation of pods to take place. And, on ac- 

 count of the rifk from wet, he advifes that all the Hock of 

 a farm ftiould be foiled on them green, as it will have the 

 good effeft of taking the ftock off the grafs land long 

 enough to allow of its being mown for hay ; and by this 

 means the meadow-hay be much increafed in quantity, and 

 there will not be fo much occafion for pafture, the tares 

 abundantly fupplying its place. And that befides, at the 

 time the cattle return from green tares, the grafs land in the 

 mean time having been mown, may be ready to receive them. 

 The fame able writer remarks, in addition, that as it would 

 be wafteful in the extreme to turn live-ftock into a field of 

 tares, as their treading and lying down would do great mif- 

 chief to the crop, even by feeding it in fmall patches hurdled 

 off ; the moft advifeable method would be to mow the tares 

 of tLe firft half acre, and to c^rry the produce into the 

 ftables, cow-houfes, and fold-yards, or on poor land, to 

 be confumed by ftock ; then to hurdle the growing tares 

 from fuch ckared ground, into which put the ftock, and feed 

 them all with the tares, given to them in racks, removing 

 tie hurdles and the racks forward daily to the edge of the 

 grjwing tares ; which wiU manure the land uniformly, and 

 depofit all the urine in the foil. But the writer of the Cor- 

 refted Gloucefter Report on Agriculture, has ftated another 

 method of proceeding, where iheep are the fort of ftock 

 employed, which feems by no means ineligible, 'uia. to 

 feed them through rack hiadles, which are made the fame 

 as the common hve-railed ones, only leaving the middle rail 

 out, and nailing upright pieces acrofs, at proper diftances, to 

 admit the (lieep to put iheir heads through. A fwathe of 

 vetches being mown in the diieftion you wifli to plough the 

 land, a fufficient number of thefe hurdles, allowing one to 

 five (heep, are fet up clofe to it : at noon, the fhepherd 

 mows the fwathe and throws it to the hurdles, and the fame 

 at night : next morning, a fwathe being firft mown, the 

 hurdles are again fet, thus moving them once in the twenty- 

 four hours. By this trifling additional trouble, the vetches 

 are, it is faid, eaten clean off, and the land equally benefited. 



The writer of the Hertfordfhire Corrected Agricultural 

 Report remarks, that in the heavy land diftrifts, he has 

 found tares very generally cultivated for foiling the teams ; 

 a hufbandry, he thinks, that cannot be too much commended. 

 And he contends farther, that it appears by the writings of 

 Ellis, that this branch of agriculture was common in this 

 county above fixty years ago, before it was at all praftifed 

 in many other counties, and he was glad to find it holds its 

 place (leadily in the management of the prefent period. It 



is noticed, that Mr. Leach, of the fame diftriil, manures foi' 

 tares, and that they are mown early, and then three earths 

 are given to the land, when he gets good turrjps after them. 

 And that they are univerfal about Rickmanf-.vorth and 

 Watford, many being fed off by fheep. 



And the fame writer fays, in his Agricultural Survey of 

 Norfolk, that the culture of this plant has increafed very 

 coiifiderably in that diftriiSl : within his memor)- they are 

 multiplied at leaft tenfold. And that Mr. Overir.an there 

 bep-ins fowing winter tares about Michaelmas, once more 

 betore Chriftmas, and fometimes twice or thrice more, with 

 fpring tares for a fucceffion. That after moviring, he does 

 not plough the land, but runs fiieep over it till the whcat- 

 fowing. But that the cultivator who has made by far the 

 greateft exertions ia this hufoandry that he ever met with, is 

 Mr. Purdis, of Eggmorc, who has 300 acres every year, 

 feeding no more than is neceffary to Supply himfelf : they 

 are fed by his (heep ; ufed in foiling his numerous horfes ; 

 and immenfe quantities made into hay. 



It is fuggefted, as the remark of Mr. Blithe, that the 

 fowing tares for fummer-feeding fheep, is an abfolutcly new 

 improvement in the hulbandry of Weft Norfolk, and that he 

 thinks it a very gieat and important one. 



And in both the counties of Gloucefter and Worcefter, it 

 is the praftice to fow thefe crops as pafturage or feed for 

 horfes, and eat or get them off early enough to allow of 

 turnips being fown the fame feafon. But, as in the wet 

 feafons^ when the tare-crops are large, the ftems are apt to 

 become rotten upon the ground, and in this condition fuch 

 food often proves prejudicial to the horfes ; in all iuch cafes, 

 it will be imprudent to cut or eat them any longer for the 

 purpofe of foiling in thefe ways. 



It is noticed in the twenty-fecond volume of the Annals of 

 Agriculture, that in the county of Suffex, thefe forts of 

 crops are of fuch ufe and importance, that not one-tenth of 

 the ftock could be maintained without them ; horfes, cows, 

 ftieep, and hogs, all feed upon them, the hogs are foiled upoit 

 them without any other food. Tlus plant maintains more 

 (lock than any other plant whatfoever. Upon one acre, 

 Mr. Davis, of this diftrift, can maintain foui- horfes in 

 much better condition than upon five acres of grafs. Upon 

 eight acres he has kept twelve horfes and five cows for tlu-ee 

 months without any other food. No ai-tificial food what- 

 ever is equal to this excellent plant in his opinion. 



They here find this srcp to be a hearty and moft no^rith- 

 ing food for all forts of oattle. Cows give nioi-e butter 

 when fed with this plant than with any other food wliat- 

 foever. And by having one crop of vetches fuccecding 

 another, Mr. Halftead, in the fame county, infures a crop 

 the whole fummer of the beft food that can be given to cat- 

 tle ; after this, he fows turnips, and then wheat. 



In many of the fouthern counties, as Cornwall, Devon, 

 Kent, and fome others, the culture of this fort of crop 

 might be greatly extended with vaft advantage, efpccially if 

 it were grown with the view of foiling different kinds of live- 

 ftock, to which purpofe it is by far the beft fuited. Alfo, 

 in many cafes, as a highly valuable early fort of green fpring 

 feed for many kinds of young animals ; the climates and 

 foils being mild, and particularly favourable for their very 

 early produftion and abundant growth, when fown at the 

 moft proper fe.-ifon. 



It is remarked alfo, that they have on the South Downs 

 an admirable praftice in their courfe of crops, which cannot 

 be too much commended, that of fubftituting a double crop 

 of tares, inftead of a fallow for wheat. Let the improving 

 cultivator give his attention to this pra<Sice, for it is worth, 

 in the opinion of the writer, a journey of five hundred miles. 



They 



