THE TEASEL. 
36 
archy, and the rival jealousies of foreign nations, would 
have impeded, or prohibited, the necessary supply of 
teasels, and thus rendered the domestic cultivation of 
this indispensable plant a primary object. The manu- 
factory of cloth was certainly carried on in England 
during the reign of Richard I., perhaps in his father’s 
reign ; but it was probably not until after the tenth of 
Edward III., that the teasel was cultivated to any extent 
with us ; for about that time the exportation of English 
wool was prohibited, and the wearing of foreign cloth 
opposed by government. Flemish artisans were encour- 
aged to settle in this country, and carry on their trade, 
with every liberty and protection ; a regular mart was 
established ; and the tuckers, or woollen weavers, be- 
came an incorporated body ; particular towns began to 
furnish peculiar colors — Kendal, its green, Coventry, 
its blue, Bristol, its red, &c. ; and from this period, I 
think, we may date the cultivation of the teasel in 
England. 
Hudson, in considering this species as indigenous, 
directs us to hedges for our specimens ; but, though the 
teasel is certainly found a wilding in some places astray 
from cultivation, yet it is singular that with us it does 
not wander from culture : though the seeds are scattered 
about and swept from the barns where the heads are 
dried into the yard, and vegetate in profusion on the 
dung-heaps and the by-ways where dropped, yet I have 
never observed it growing in the surrounding hedges. 
Teasels are cultivated in some of the strong clay- 
lands of Wilts, Essex, Gloucester, and Somerset. The 
latter county is supposed to have grown them earliest. 
The manufacturers rather give the preference to those 
of Gloucester, as lands repeatedly cropped are thought 
not to produce them so good in some respects. Strong 
land, thrown up as for wheat, and kept dry, affords the 
best teasels. Weeding, draining, and other requisites, 
demand a constant labor through great part of the year; 
and hence a certain expense is incurred : but remune- 
ration, loss, or great profit, circumstances must deter- 
mine ; nor, perhaps, is there any article grown more 
precarious or mutable in its returns. 
