165 
Some Minor Farm Crops. 
The soil on which the crop is grown is usually a three- 
horse clay ; or, as it is stated in Somersetshire, “ any good 
wheat land” will grow them. Other growers have an idea 
that the crop need not be confined to the heaviest lands, and 
certainly it has been proved that the seedlings at any rate can 
be successfully raised on fairly light land. 
The district in which the teazles are grown in Somersetshire 
is between Taunton, Chard, and Ilminster, especially in the 
neighbourhoods of Hatch, Curland, and Thurlbear. They are 
also grown to some extent near Langport. In Essex they are 
grown at Coggesliall. The area in which the crop is grown in 
Somerset coincides to some extent with the area in which the 
“ teart ” or “ tart " pastures occur. The propensity for scouring 
cattle possessed by these pastures is notorious ; and the 
“ teartness ” is supposed to be due to the peculiar physical 
and mechanical condition of these heavy clay soils. 
The teazle is said to be “ a two-year crop,” but in reality 
it is matured in from sixteen to eighteen months in England 
and Normandy, and in ten months in some of the irrigated 
areas in the departments of Southern France. In Somerset 
the seed is sown on seed-beds at the end of March or the 
beginning of April. The exact period varies a little with 
the locality, but the general time for sowing is exactly the 
same as that for mangolds. On the heaviest land an attempt is 
made to sow at the end of March ; on the lighter soils the 
sowing sometimes takes place at least a month later. The seed 
is usually sown by hand, either in drills or broadcast, but 
sometimes it is drilled with a bean drill, fitted with different 
rollers. The best growers consider that this is not a good 
method. About three gallons of seed per acre is usually 
sown, but the amount may vary from one to two pecks. It is 
usual to sow with seed about one-third of the land intended 
for the final crop, so that every acre of the seed-bed will yield 
sufficient plants to plant two other acres, whilst leaving an 
adequate number of plants for a crop on the seed-beds after 
the other plants are drawn. 
There is no special place for the crop in the rotation. It 
may be grown both before and after wheat. The land for the 
seed-bed is winter ploughed and dunged, much in the same 
way as for mangolds. A good dressing of farmyard manure is 
generally used, but artificial fertilisers are occasionally applied 
both before and after the crop has been transplanted. Nitrate 
of soda and superphosphate are occasionally supplied to the 
seed-beds, and likewise to the plants in the second year during 
the months of April, May and June. The great necessity in 
the arrangement of the ploughing is to leave roads so that 
the cutters may move freely amongst the plants during the 
