80 FENNEL. 
Parsnips are propagated by seed sown in February 
of March, and the roots are in perfection about October. 
These, besides their use as a vegetable for the table, 
are of great value for the feeding of cattle, horses, 
sheep, and hogs. Land in Guernsey, which lets for 11. 
an acre, is sown with parsnips to feed cattle ; and the 
milk of the cows so fed is not only richer than it would 
otherwise be, but yields butter of fine saffron colour 
and excellent taste. 
If parsnips be washed clean, and sliced among bran, 
horses will eat them. They will fatten sheep and oxen 
in a short time ; and for the feeding of hogs they are 
at least equal if not superior to carrots. As food for 
mankind they are considered extremely nutritive ; and 
may, with great advantage, be kept on board ships that 
are destined for long voyages. It is, however, said that 
they should not be dug up for use in the spring, be- 
cause, at that season, the nutritive juices rising upward 
to produce the seed, they are then unwholesome. 
Parsnips abound in saccharine juice ; and various ex- 
periments have, in vain, been made with a view to ex- 
tract sugar from them. In several parts of Ireland they 
are used instead of malt in brewing; and, when pro- 
perly fermented, they afford an agreeable beverage. 
The seeds are considered by some practitioners as an 
efficacious remedy in intermittent fevers. 
90. FENNEL (Anethmn foenicuJum) is a well known 
plant, which u cultivated in gardens, and grows wild in several 
parts of England. 
The leaves of fennel, both boiled and raw, are used in 
sauce for several kinds of fish. The tender buds are 
eaten in salads ; and, in Italy, the stalks are sometimes 
blanched as winter salad. A distilled water, prepared 
from the seeds, is occasionally administered as a medi- 
cine ; and there was formerly a notion that the roots 
were peculiarly valuable, as a remedy in several dis- 
eases, but they are now almost wholly disregarded. 
