Part 3

Buffalo Clover is a kind similar to Trifolium agrarium and Trifolium repens, and appears to me to be a hybrid plant. This has been sometimes sent to this country from America, and is a larger plant than either. It has, however, as far as I have grown it, the same property of exhausting the soil as all the other species possess, and is soon found to go off: it is not in cultivation to any large extent.

59. VICIA Cracca. TUFTED VETCH.--Persons who have most noticed this plant have imagined it might be introduced into cultivation. It is hardy, durable, nutritious, and productive; but, like the Yellow Vetchling, the seeds do not readily vegetate; the only way to cultivate it, therefore, would be by planting out the roots; which might be done, as they are easily parted and are to be procured in great plenty in the places where it grows wild.

60. VICIA sativa. VETCHES, FETCH, or TARE.--A very useful and common plant, of which we have two varieties known to the farmer by the name of Spring and Winter Tares: they are both annuals. The spring variety is a more upright growing plant, and much tenderer than the other: it is usually sown in March and April, and affords in general fine summer fodder.

The Winter Tares are usually sown at the wheat seed-time, remain all winter, and are usually cut in the spring, generally six weeks before the spring crop comes in. The Winter Tares are now considered a crop worth attention by the farmers near London, who sow them, and sell the crop in small bundles in the spring at a very good price. Tares are usually sown broadcast, about three bushels and a half to the acre. Persons should be careful in procuring the true variety for the winter sowing; for I have frequently known a crop fail altogether by sowing the Spring Tares, which is a more tender variety, at that season. It should be noticed that the seeds of both varieties are so much alike that the kinds are not to be distinguished; but the plants are easily known as soon as they begin to grow and form stems; the Spring kind having a very upright habit, and the Winter Tares trail on the ground. It is usual for persons wanting seeds of such to procure a sample; and by growing them in a hothouse, or forcing frame, they may soon be able to ascertain the kinds. Ellis in his Husbandry says, that if ewes are fed on Tares, the lambs they produce will invariably have red flesh.

61. VICIA sylvatica. WOOD VETCH.--A perennial plant growing in the shade; it seems to have all the good properties in general with the other sorts of Tares; but it is not in cultivation.

62. VICIA sepium. BUSH VETCH.--Is also a species much eaten by cattle in its wild state, but has not yet been cultivated: it nevertheless would be an acquisition if it could be got to grow in quantity.

So much having been said of the different kinds of Tares, perhaps some persons may be inclined to think that it would be superfluous to have more in cultivation than one or two sorts. To this I would beg leave to reply, that they do not all grow exactly in the same situations wild; and if they were cultivated, some one of them might be found to suit in certain lands better than others; and perhaps we never shall see our agriculture at the height of improvement, till by some public-spirited measure all those things shall be grown for the purposes of fair comparative experiment--an institution much wanted in this country.

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HINTS AS TO THE LAYING DOWN LAND TO PERMANENT PASTURE.

Having endeavoured to explain as nearly as possible the nature and uses of the plants which are likely to improve our meadows and pastures; I shall proceed to describe the best approved mode of sowing the land, on which depends, in a great measure, the future success of the husbandman's labour.

Under the head Lolium perenne I observed the practice of sowing clovers and that grass with a crop of barley or oats, which is intended as an intermediate crop for a season or two, and then the land to be again broken up and used for arable crops. And this is a common and useful practice; for although neither the Clover or Rye-grass will last long, yet both will be found to produce a good crop whilst the land will bear it, or until it is overpowered by the natural weeds of the ground [Footnote: It is not an uncommon opinion amongst farmers, that Rye-grass produces Couch; and this is not extraordinary; for, if the land is at all furnished with this weed, it receives great encouragement under this mode of culture.], which renders it necessary to the farmer to break it up.

I am aware of the difficulty of persuading persons (farmers in particular) to adopt any new systems; and I have often, when speaking of this subject amongst men of enlightened understandings, been told it would be next to madness, to sacrifice the benefit of a crop of oats or barley when the land is in fine tilth, and whilst we can grow grass seeds underneath it.

"To this I reply, that there is no land whatever, when left for a few months in a state of rest, but will produce naturally some kind of herbage, good and bad; and thus we find the industry of man excited, and the application of the hoe and the weeder continually among all our crops, this being essential to their welfare. I cannot help, therefore, observing how extremely absurd it is to endeavour to form clean and good pasturage under a crop hat gives as much protection to every noxious weed as to the young grass itself. Weeds are of two descriptions, and each requires a very different mode of extermination: thus, if annual, as the Charlock and Poppy, they will flower among the corn, and the seeds will ripen and drop before harvest, and be ready to vegetate as soon as the corn is removed; and if perennial, as Thistles, Docks, Couch-grass, and a long tribe of others in this way, well known to the farmer, they will be found to take such firm possession of the ground that they will not be got rid of without great trouble and expense.

"Although the crop of corn thus obtained is valuable, yet when a good and permanent meadow is wanted, and when all the strength of the land is required to nurture the young grass thus robbed and injured, the proprietor is often at considerable expense the second year for manure, which, taking into consideration the trouble and disadvantage attending it, more than counterbalances the profit of the corn crop.

"To accomplish fully the formation of permanent meadows, three things are necessary: namely to clean the land, to produce good and perfect seeds adapted to the nature of the soil, and to keep the crop clean by eradicating all the weeds, till the grasses have grown sufficiently to prevent the introduction of other plants. The first of these matters is known to every good farmer,--the second may be obtained,--and the third may be accomplished by practising the modes in which I have succeeded at a small comparative expense and trouble, and which is instanced in a meadow immediately fronting Brompton Crescent, the property of Angus Macdonald, Esq. which land was very greatly encumbered with noxious weeds of all kinds: but, by the following plan, the grasses were encouraged to grow up to the exclusion of all other plants; and though it has been laid down more than ten years, the pasturage is now at least equal to any in the county.

"Grass seeds may be sown with equal advantage both in spring and autumn. The land above mentioned was sown in the latter end of August, and the seed made use of was one bushel of Meadow-fescue, and one of Meadow fox-tail-grass, with a mixture of fifteen pounds of white Clover and Trefoil per acre; the land was previously cleaned as far as possible with the plough and harrows, and the seeds sown and covered in the usual way. In the month of October following, a most prodigious crop of annual weeds of many kinds having grown up, were in bloom, and covered the ground and the sown grasses; the whole was then mowed and carried off the land, and by this management all the annual weeds were at once destroyed, as they do not spring again if cut down when in bloom. Thus, whilst the stalks and roots of the annual weeds were decaying, the sown grasses were getting strength during the fine weather, and what few perennial weeds were amongst them were pulled up by hand in their young state. The whole land was repeatedly rolled, to prevent the worms and frost from throwing the plants out of the ground; and in the following spring it was grazed till the latter end of March, when it was left for hay, and has ever since continued a good field of grass.

"Several meadows at Roehampton, belonging to the late B. Goldsmid, Esq., were laid down with two bushels of Meadow fescue-grass and fifteen pounds of mixed Clover, and sown in the spring along with one peck and a half of Barley, intended as a shade to the young grasses. The crop was thus suffered to grow till the latter end of June, and then the corn, with the weeds, was mowed and carried off the land; the ground was then rolled, and at the end of July the grasses were so much grown as to admit good grazing for sheep, which were kept thereon for several weeks. It should be observed, that the corn is to be mowed whilst in bloom, and when there is an appearance of, or immediately after rain; which will be an advantage to the grasses, and occasion them to thrive greatly.

"I sowed some fields for the same gentleman in autumn in the same way, and found them to succeed equally well."

The above remarks are part of a communication I gave six years since to the Society of Arts, for which I was honoured with their prize medal; and I have great pleasure in transcribing it [Footnote: See Transactions of the Society of Arts, vol. xxvii. p. 70.], as I frequently visit the meadows mentioned above, and have the satisfaction of hearing them pronounced the best in their respective neighbourhoods. Thus are my opinions on this head borne out by twelve years experience. Let the sceptic compare this improvement with his pretended advantage of a crop of Barley.

It should be observed that our agricultural efforts are intended only to assist the operations of nature, and that in all our experiments we should consult the soil as to its spontaneous produce, from whence alone we can be enabled to adapt, with propriety, plants to proper situations. The kinds of selected grass-seeds that are at this time to be purchased are few, and consist of Lolium perenne, Festuca pratensis, Alopecurus pratensis; Dactylis glomeratus, Cynosurus cristatus; with the various kinds of Clovers: and it is not easy to lay down any rule as to the mixture or proportion of each different kind that would best suit particular lands. Attention however should, in all cases, be paid to the plants growing wild in the neighbouring pastures, or in similar soils, and the greater portion used of those which are observed to thrive best.

In certain instances I have mentioned particular quantities of seeds to be mixed with others; but in general I have stated how much it would require to sow an acre with each kind separately; from which a person may form a criterion, when several sorts are used, as to what quantity of each sort should be adopted. Taking into view, therefore, that nothing but a mixture of proper kinds of Grasses, &c. will make good pasturage, and that our knowledge is very imperfect on this head at the present season, we must advise that particular attention be paid to the subject, or little good can be hoped for from all our endeavours.

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SECT. III.--FODDER FROM LEAVES AND ROOTS.

The student in agriculture will find in this department a wide field for speculation, which, although it has been greatly improved during the last century, still affords much room for experiments.

During the last thirty-five years I have had opportunity of observing the great difference in the quantity of cattle brought to one of our largest beast-markets in the south of England; and it is well known that this has increased in a ratio of more than double; and I am informed by a worthy and truly honourable prelate, who has observed the same for twenty-five years previously, that it has nearly quadrupled. I have also made it my business, as a subject of curiosity, to inquire if the increase at other markets has been the same, and from all accounts I am convinced of the affirmative. Now as we have ample proofs from the statistical accounts of our husbandry, that less corn has not been grown in the same period, we shall naturally be inclined to give the merit of this increase to the introduction of the Turnip husbandry, which, although it is now become so general, is, comparatively speaking, but in its infancy; and it is from that branch of our agriculture that has sprung the culture of the great variety of fodder of the description which I am now about to explain.

And here it may not prove amiss to observe to the botanical student, should he hereafter be destined to travel, that by making himself thus acquainted with the nature of such vegetables, he may have it in his power to render great benefit to society by the introduction of others of still superior virtues, for the use both of man and the brute creation. When Sir Walter Raleigh undertook his expedition to South America, the object of which failed, he had the good fortune from his taste for botany to render to his country, and to the world at large, a more essential service, by the introduction of one single vegetable, than was ever achieved by the military exploits performed before or since that period [Footnote: The Potatoe was introduced by Sir Walter Raleigh, on his return from the River Plate, in the year 1586.]. It has not only been the means of increasing the wealth and strength of nations, but more than once prevented a famine in this country when suffering from a scarcity of bread-corn and when most of the ports which could afford us a supply were shut by the ambition of a powerful enemy.

63. BRASSICA Napus. TURNIP.--Turnips afford the best feed for sheep in the autumn and winter months. It is usual to sow them as a preparatory crop for Barley, and now very frequently for a crop of Spring Wheat. Turnips are not easily raised but where some kind of manure is used to stimulate the land. In dry seasons the crop is often destroyed by the ravages of a small beetle, which perforates the cotyledons of the plants, and destroys the crop on whole fields in a few hours.

Many remedies against this evil are enumerated in our books on husbandry. The best preventative, however, appears to be the putting manure on the ground in a moist state and sowing the seeds with it, in order to excite the young plant to grow rapidly; for the insect does not hurt it when the rough leaf is once grown. I have this season seen a fine field of Turnips, sown mixt with dung out of a cart and ploughed in ridges. The seeds which were not too deeply buried grew and escaped the fly; when scarcely a field in the same district escaped the ravages of that insect. Turnips are sown either broad-cast or in drills. It takes about four pounds of seed per acre in the first mode, and about half the quantity in the second.

There are several varieties of turnips grown for cattle; the most striking of which are, the White round Norfolk; the Red round ditto; the Green round ditto; the Tankard; the Yellow. These varieties are nearly the same in goodness and produce: the green and red are considered as rather more hardy than the others. The tankard is long-rooted and stands more out of the ground, and is objected to as being more liable to the attack of early frosts. The yellow is much esteemed in Scotland, and supposed to contain more nutriment [Footnote: The usual season for sowing the above varieties is within a fortnight or three weeks after Midsummer.]. The Stone and Dutch turnips are grown for culinary purposes, and are also sometimes sown after the corn is cleared, as being small and of early growth; these in such cases are called stubble turnips, and often in fine autumns produce a considerable quantity of herbage. For a further account of the culture &c. see Dickson's Modern Husbandry, vol. ii. p. 639.

There is nothing in husbandry requiring more care than the saving seeds of most of the plants of this tribe, and in particular of the Genus Brassica. If two sorts of turnips or cabbages are suffered to grow and bloom together, the pollen of each kind will be sufficiently mixed to impregnate each alternately, and a hybrid kind will be the produce, and in ninety-nine times out of a hundred a worse variety than either. Although this is generally the result of an indiscriminate mixture, yet by properly adapting two different kinds to grow together, new and superior varieties are sometimes produced. One gentleman having profited by this philosophy, has succeeded in producing some fine new varieties of fruits and vegetables, much to the honour of his own talents and his country's benefit [Footnote: See Mr Knight On the Apple-tree.]. It is well known to gardeners that the cabbage tribe are liable to sport thus in their progeny; and to some accidental occurrence of this nature we are indebted for the very useful plant called the

64. ROOTA-BAGA. SWEDISH TURNIP.--Which is a hybrid plant par-taking of the turnip and cabbage, and what has within these few years added so much to the benefit of the grazier. This root is much more hardy than any of the turnips; it will stand our winters without suffering injury from frosts, and is particularly ponderous and nutritious.

It is usually cultivated as the common trunip, with this difference, that it requires to be sown as early in some lands as the month of May, it being a plant which requires a longer time to come to maturity.

Every judicious farmer who depends on turnips for foddering his stock in the winter, will do well to guard against the loss sometimes occasioned by the failure of his Turnips from frost and wet. Various ways of doing this are recommended, as stacking &c. But if he has a portion of his best land under Swedish turnip, he will have late in the winter a valuable crop that will be his best substitute. Another advantage is this, that it will last a fortnight longer in the spring, and consequently be valuable on this account. The quantity of seed usually sown is the same as for the common kinds of turnip. There are two varieties of this plant, one white and the other yellow: the latter is the most approved.

65. BRASSICA Napo Brassica. KOHLRABBI.--A hardy kind of Turnip cabbage, grown much in Germany for fodder: it is very nutritive, and has the property of resisting frost better than either the turnips or cattle-cabbage. The seed and culture of this are the same as of Drum-head cabbage.

There are two varieties of this plant, the green and the purple; the latter is generally most esteemed.

66. BRUSSELS SPROUTS.--This is a large variety of cabbage, very productive and hardy. The culture is the same as for Cattle-cabbage.

67. BRASSICA oleracea. DRUM-HEAD CABBAGE.--This is usually sown in March and the plants put out into beds, and then transplanted into the fields; this grows to a most enormous size, and is very profitable. About four pounds of seed is sufficient for an acre.

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SEC. IV.--GRAINS.

73. AVENA sativa. COMMON OATS.--A grain very commonly known, of which we have a number of varieties, from the thin old Black Oats to the fine Poland variety and the celebrated Potatoe-Oats.

These give the farmer at all times the advantage of a change of seeds, a measure allowed on all hands to be essential to good husbandry. The culture is various; thin soils growing the black kind in preference, which is remarkably hardy, where the finer sorts affecting a better soil will not succeed. It is applicable both to the drill and broad-cast. The seed is from six pecks to four bushels per acre, and the crop from seven to fourteen quarters.

74. CARUM Carui. CARAWAY SEEDS.--The seeds of this are in demand both by druggists and confectioners. It is cultivated in Kent and Essex; where it, being a biennial plant, is sown with a crop of spring corn, and left with the stubble during the succeeding winter, and after clearing the land in the spring is left to go to seed. It requires a good hot dry soil; but although the crop is often of great value, it so much exhausts the land as to be hazardous culture in many light soils where the dunghill is not handy.

The seed is about ten pounds per acre, and the crop often five or six sacks.

75. CORIANDRUM sativum. CORIANDER.--Is grown in the stiff lands, in Essex, and is an annual of easy but not of general culture. The seeds are used by druggists and rectifiers of spirits, and form many of the cordial drinks.

The quantity of seed and produce are similar to those of Caraway.

76. ERVUM Lens. LENTILS.--Once cultivated here for the seeds, which are used for soups; but it is furnished principally from Spain, and can at all times be purchased for less than it can be grown for.

77. HORDEUM distichon. COMMON TWO-ROWED BARLEY.--A grain now in very general cultivation, and supposed to be the best kind grown for malting. The season for sowing barley is in the spring, and the crop varies according to soil and culture; it is sown either broad-cast, drilled, or dibbled. The quantity of seed sown is from three pecks to three bushels per acre, and the produce from three to eleven quarters.

As the process of malting may not be generally understood by that class of readers for which this work is mostly intended, I shall give a short sketch of it.--It is a natural principle of vegetation, that every seed undergoes a change before it is formed into the young plant. The substance of the cotyledons, which when ground forms the nutritious flower of which bread is made, changes into two particular substances, i. e. sugar and mucilage; and whilst mankind form from it the principal staff of life as an edible commodity, the same parts of the seed in barley are by certain means made into malt, which is only another term for the sugar of that grain. To effect this, the barley is steeped in water, and afterwards laid in heaps, in which state it vegetates in a few days, and the saccharine fermentation is by that means carried on to a certain pitch, when it is put on a kiln to which a fire is applied, and it is by that means dried. It is then perfect malt, and fit for the purpose of brewing.

Pearl and Scotch Barley, used for soup and medicinal purposes, are made from the grain by being put into a mill, which merely grinds off the husk. The Pearl barley is mostly prepared in Holland, but the Scotch is made near Edinburgh in considerable quantities. A description of an improved Mill for this purpose is to be seen in the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, p. 283.

78. HORDEUM vulgare. BERE, BIG, or WINTER BARLEY.--This is a coarser grain than the Two-rowed Barley, and hence it is not so well adapted to the purpose of malting. It is grown on cold thin soils, being much hardier than the former.

It is now often sown in October, and in the month of May or June following it is mown and taken off the land for green fodder. The plants will notwithstanding this produce in August a very abundant crop of grain. Hence this is a valuable mode of culture for the farmer.

The other varieties of Barley are,

79. HORDEUM hexastichon. SIX-ROWED BARLEY.--This is also a coarse grain; and although it was once in cultivation here, it has been altogether superseded by the Bere, which is a better kind.

80. HORDEUM zeocriton. BATTLEDORE BARLEY.--This is a fine grain, but very tender, and not now in cultivation in this country.

NAKED BARLEY. The two first species sometimes produce a variety which thrashes out of the husks similar to wheat: these are very heavy and fine grain, but they are not in cultivation: for what reason I know not.