191 1.] Cultivation of Furze for Fodder, etc., 761 



Furze seed on hedges and uncultivated lands is gathered 

 by hand by poor country people in many districts, and handed 

 over by them to small rural merchants, who resell to 

 merchants in the large towns. Even where the furze is regu- 

 larly cultivated, some cultivators prefer to harvest by hand, 

 but the method is slow, and is only possible when an abundant 

 supply of cheap labour is available, and when the price of 

 seed is high. 



The stems of furze are cut as near as possible to the pods. 

 When cut by hand, the thorny stems of the plant are raised 

 by a small wooden fork, with two or three prongs, held in 

 the left hand, and the part bearing the pod is cut by a sickle 

 held in the right hand. The lower parts of the stems are 

 taken away later as fuel. 



To avoid the dehiscence of the ripest pods, cutting is recom- 

 mended when the plants are slightly wet, i.e., in the morning 

 or evening, or after a little rain. 



Preparation for market. — The pods are carried to the farm 

 and placed on cloths and sacks, or on the barn floor, where 

 they burst open under the action of drying, the seeds being 

 thrown out of the pods and easily gathered. At least a month 

 is necessary for exposure to air and light before the greater 

 part of the seeds can be gathered. If the pods are exposed 

 during drying to too hot sunshine, the quality of the seed will 

 be injured through too early maturity. 



The seeds are cleaned by being passed through a winnowing 

 machine. This machine separates the heavy seeds from the light 

 seeds coming from adventitious plants and from impurities, 

 such as husk. Cleaning is also carried out by means of a 

 sieve, with conveniently-sized holes. No other preparation is 

 made before marketing. Purchases are made by rural seed 

 merchants who are directly in touch with the cultivators. 

 Furze seed, if kept in suitable storage, retains its germinative 

 faculty for five or six years. 



Yield. — The unimproved variety of furze, growing on 

 hedges and in ditches, is much more productive of seed than 

 the foxtail variety, but seed from the latter is larger in size 

 if care has been taken to thin out the plants. 



An acre of ordinary furze yields, on an average, 180 lb. to 

 270 lb. of seeds, while foxtail gives about 90 lb. to 135 lb. of 

 seeds per acre. A bushel of seed weighs about 56 lb. 



