380 
Gorse. 
conjunction with turnips, sheep ate it freely, and improved rapidly 
in condition. 
It is in feeding horses, however, that gorse has hitherto most 
generally and most advantageously been employed. It is because 
this plant grows so abundantly in all parts of the Principality, 
and because it is so much employed in the keeping of horses, 
that in many seasons the less wealthy classes of Welsh farmers 
may congratulate themselves on their escape from ruin. Without 
this plant, even in ordinary years, the grass-produce of many of 
the smaller farms, as they are at present cultivated, would barely 
suffice as keep for the horses employed upon them. In such 
seasons as that which is now passing away (March, 1845), had it 
not been for the extent to which gorse is used as food for horses 
and cattle, there were many farmers so scantily supplied with 
hay and straw that no inconsiderable part of their live stock must 
inevitably have perished (^Afp. 5 and 9). 
It may be safely asserted, that in the counties of Carnarvon 
and Anglesey, and in a portion of the county of Denbigh, four- 
fifths of the farmers, innkeepers, public carriers, and others who 
keep horses, are in the habit of using gorse as provender to a 
great extent, and with signal advantage {App. 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9). 
Notwithstanding the indisputable advantages which the use 
of this plant confers upon the farmers, still the cultivation of it as 
a permanent crop of green succulent food for horses and other 
stock has been but of limited extent, in comparison with the 
benefits which are always to be derived from such a source. 
This improvidence and this want of forethought are to be 
ascribed to indolence and apathy on the part of those whose in- 
terest it is to keep as large a stock as they can, and to have that 
stock in the best possible condition. The negligence com- 
plained of is, no doubt, partly owing to the abundance in which 
the gorse plant is almost everywhere to be met with, in its 
wild or natural state, throughout a hilly and rugged country 
such as Wales. The commonness of the plant, notwithstanding 
its intrinsic and acknowledged value, has had the effect of leading 
not a few to neglect the cultivation of it. Some have thought it 
undeserving of their notice, and others beneath their dignity ; 
for there are those who are silly enough to imagine that nothing 
can be good but what is fetched from a distance, and purchased 
at a high price. 
The cultivation and the nursing, however, of this evergreen, 
common though it be, are deserving of the greatest attention. It 
presents to all classes of farmers advantages which it is difficult 
to enumerate. It will grow luxuriantly on the thinnest, the 
coldest, and apparently the most sterile soils. It is capable of 
being used, as circumstances may require, at one year's growth. 
