for all sorts of cattle. Cows give more butter when fed with this plant than with any other food whatsoever. Horses thrive better upon tares than they do upon clover and rye grass; and the same remark is applicable to fattening of cattle, who feed faster upon this article of green fodder, than upon any kind of grass or esculent with which we are acquainted. Danger often arises from their eating too many, especially when podded as colics, and other stomach disorders, are apt to be produced by the excessive loads which they devour. Perhaps a great quantity of fixed air is contained in this vegetable and as heavy crops are rarely dry at the root when cut, it is not to be wondered that accidents often happen, when the animal is indulged with the unrestrained consumption of them. Were oat straw mixed with the tares in the racks or stalls in which they are deposited, it is probable that fewer accidents would follow, though this assistant is only re quired when the tares are wet, foul, or over succulent. If the plants he cut green, and given to live-stock, either on the field, or in the fold-yards, there is, perhaps, no green crop of greater value, nor any better calculated to give a succession of herbage from May to November. The winter-sown tare, in a favorable climate, is ready for cutting before clover. The first spring crop comes in after the clover must be all consumed or made into hay; and the successive spring sowings give a produce more nourishing for the larger animals than the aftermath of clover, and may afford green food at least a month longer. In the county of Sussex, Young observes, "tare crops are of such use and importance that not one-tenth of the stock could be maintained without them; horses, cows, sheep, hogs, all feed upon them; hogs are soiled upon them without any other food. This plant maintains more stock than any other plant whatsoever. Upon one acre, Davis maintained four horses in much better condition than upon five acres of grass. Upon eight acres he has kept twelve horses and five cows for three months without any other food: no artificial food whatever is equal to this excellent plant." This statement must be coupled with the usual produce of turnips in Sussex, 10 or 15 tons per acre: hence the supposed superiority of tares to every other green crop. Tares cut green, Professor Thaer observes, draw no nourishment from the soil whatever, while made into hay, they afford a fodder preferred by cattle to pease-straw, and more nutritive than hay or any other herbage.

4812. The use of the grain of tares is generally for reproduction; but they are also given to pigeons, by whom they are highly relished, and it is thought they would form a very good food for poultry. In Germany they are given to horses, cows, sheep, and swine. 4813. The diseases of tares are so few as to be of no consequence. A crop is sometimes, but rarely, lost by mildew.

565

SECT. IV. Of other Leguminous Grains, which might be cultivated in British Farming. 4814. The lentil, kidneybean, and chick pea are grown both in France and Germany as field plants for their grains, to be used as food. They are by no means likely to become articles of general culture in Britain; but it is worth while to know that they may be cultivated here instead of being imported, and also that they form very excellent articles of human food.

4815. The lentil is the Ervum lens, L. Les lentilles, Fr.; Lentzen, Ger. ; and Lenticcia, Ital. (fig. 565.) It is a legume of the greatest antiquity, being in esteem in Esau's time, and much prized in eastern countries ever since. In Egypt and Syria, they are parched in a fryingpan and sold in the shops, and considered by the natives as the best food for those who undertake long journeys. The lentil is considered a native of France, but has been known in England from the earliest agricultural records.

In Gerarde's time, they were sown like tares, their haulm given to cattle, and the grain to pigeons, and used in meagre soups.

4816. There are three varieties of lentils cultivated in France and Germany; the small brown, which is the lightest flavored, and the best for haricots and soups; the yellowish, which is a little larger, and the next best; and the lentil of Provence, which is almost as large as a pea with luxuriant straw, and more fit to be cultivated as a tare, than for the grains as human food.

4817. A dry warm sandy soil is requisite for the lentil; it is sown rather later than the pea, at the rate of a bushel or one and a half bushels to the acre; in other respects its culture and harvesting are the same, and it ripens sooner. The lentil, Young observes, is a crop not uncommon about Chesterford in Essex, where they sow a bushel an acre on one ploughing in the beginning or middle of March. It is there the custom to make hay of them, or seed them, for cutting into chaff for trough-meat for sheep and horses, and they sow them on both heavy and dry soils. It is, however, added, that the whole country is of a calcareous nature. It is likewise stated, that attention should

be paid not to water horses soon after eating this sort of food, as they are apt to hove them. They are likewise asserted to be cultivated for the same purpose in Oxfordshire, and probably in other districts.

4818. The produce of the lentil in grain is about a fourth less than that of the tare; and in straw it is not a third as much, the plants seldom growing above one and a half feet high. The straw is, however, very delicate and nourishing, and preferred for lambs and calves, and the grain on the continent sells at nearly double the price of pease. Einhoff obtained from 3840 parts of lentils, 1260 parts of starch, and 1433 of a matter analogous to animal matter.

4819. The use of the lentil on the continent is very general, both in soups and dressed with a butter sauce as haricot. They are imported from Hamburgh, and sold in London for the same purpose.

4820. The chick pea (Cicer arietinum, fig. 55.), grows naturally in the south of Europe, and is cultivated there for the same purposes as the lentil, but it is too delicate for field culture in this country.

4821. The kidneybean (Phaseolus vulgaris, L. Haricot, Fr.; Schminkbohne, Ger.; and Fagiuolo, Ital.) is a native of India, but ripens readily in dry summers in most parts of Britain. Its culture has been hitherto confined to gardens, but it might be grown equally well in dry, warm, rich, and sheltered soils, being grown in the fields of Germany, Switzerland, and similar climates. The sort generally used for this purpose is the small dwarf white; the ground is prepared by several stirrings, and the seed is dibbled in rows eighteen inches or two feet asunder in the beginning of May. The ground is hoed and weeded during the summer, and the crop is ripe in August. It is usually harvested by pulling up the plants, which, being dried, are stacked or threshed. The haulm is of little bulk or use, but the grain is used in making the esteemed French dish called haricot, which it were desirable the cottagers of this country were made acquainted with. There is perhaps no other vegetable dish so cheap and easily cooked, and at the same time so agreeable and nourishing. The beans are boiled and then mixed with a little salt butter or other fat, and a little milk or water, and flour. From 3840 parts of kidney bean, Einhoff obtained 1805 parts of matter analogous to starch, 851 of vegeto-animal matter, and 799 parts of mucilage. Haricots and lentils are much used in all Catholic countries during Lent and maigre days, as they, from their peculiar constituents, form so excellent a substitute for animal food. During the prevalence of the Roman religion in this country, they were probably much more generally used than at present; as reformations are often carried farther than is necessary, possibly lentils may have been left off by Protestants, lest the use of them may have been considered a symptom of popery.

4822. The lupin (Lupinus luteus, L. fig. 566.), was cultivated by the Romans as a legume, and is still occasionally grown in Italy. The grain was formerly, and is occasionally now used as food; but more generally the whole plant is mown and given as herbage to cattle, and sometimes the crop is ploughed down as manure.

CHAP. IV.

Of Plants cultivated for their Roots or Leaves.

4823. Plants cultivated for their roots or leaves are various, and most of them are adapted both for human food and that of domestic animals; but some are chiefly or entirely grown for the nurture of live-stock. The plants which we include under this head, are the potatoe, turnip, carrot, parsnep, beet, cabbage tribe, lettuce, and chiccory. The culture of roots may be considered a branch of farming almost entirely of modern origin, and more peculiarly British than any other department. Turnips were cultivated by the Romans, and in modern times brought into notice as objects of field culture in the last century, but they were most imperfectly managed, and of very little utility in agriculture till their culture was undertaken by the British farmer. The potatoe, carrot, and parsnep, were also first cultivated in the fields of this country. Friable or light soil, superior pulverisation, and manuring, the row-method, and careful after-culture, are essential to the maturation of the plants to be treated of in this Chapter; and hence the importance of such crops as preparations for those of the bread corns.

4824. The nutritive products of these plants are thus given by Sir H. Davy:

Brassica oleracea

SECT. I. The Potatoe.

· Solanum tuberosum, L. Pentan. Monog. L. and Solaneæ, J. Pomme de Terre, Fr.; Cartoffel, Ger.; Tartuflo or Pomo di Terra, Ital. 4825. The potatoe is supposed to be a native of South America; but Humboldt is very doubtful if that can be proved; he admits, however, that it is naturalised there in some situations. Sir J. Banks (Hort. Trans. vol. i. p. 8.) considers that the potatoe was first brought into Europe from the mountainous parts of South America, in the neighborhood of Quito, where they were called papas, to Spain, in the early part of the sixteenth century. From Spain, where they were called battatas, they appear to have found their way first to Italy, where they received the same name with the truffle, taratoufli. The potatoe was received by Clusius, at Vienna, in 1598, from the governor of Mons, in Hainault, who had procured it the year before from one of the attendants of the Pope's legate, under the name of taratouflo, and learned from him that it was then in use in Italy. In Germany it received the name of cartoffel, and spread rapidly even in Clusius's time.

4826. To England the potatoe was brought from Virginia by the colonists sent out by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1584, and which returned in July 1586, and "probably," according to Sir Joseph Banks, "brought with them the potatoe." Thomas Herriot, in a report on the country, published in De Bry's Collection of Voyages, (vol. i. p. 17.) decribes a plant called openawk, with "roots as large as a walnut, and others much larger ; they grow in damp soil, many hanging together, as if fixed on ropes; they are good food, either boiled or roasted." Gerarde, in his Herbal, published in 1597, gives a figure of the potatoe, under the name of the potatoe of Virginia, whence, he says, he received the roots; and this appellation it appears to have retained, in order to distinguish it from the battatas, or sweet potatoe (Convolvulus baltatas), till the year 1640, if not longer. "The sweet potatoe," Sir Joseph Banks observes, "was used in England as a delicacy long before the introduction of our potatoes: it was imported in considerable quantities from Spain and the Canaries, and was supposed to possess the power of restoring decayed vigor. The kissing comfits of Falstaff, and other confections of similar imaginary qualities, with which our ancestors were duped, were principally made of these and of eringo

4827. The potatoe was first planted by Sir William Raleigh on his estate of Youghall, near Cork, and Gough says, was "cherished and cultivated for food" in that country before its value was known in England; for, though they were soon carried over from Ireland into Lancashire, Gerarde, who had this plant in his garden in 1597, under the name of Baltata Virginiana, recommends the roots to be eaten as a delicate dish, not as common food. Parkinson mentions, that the tubers were sometimes roasted, and steeped in sack and sugar, or baked with marrow and spices, and even preserved and candied by the comfit-makers.

4828. For encouraging the cultivation of potatoes, with the view of preventing famine, the Royal Society took some measures in 1633. Still, however, although their utility as an article of food was better known, no high character was bestowed on them. In books of gardening, published towards the end of the seventeenth century, a hundred years after their introduction, they are spoken of rather slightingly. They are much used in Ireland and America as bread," says one author, "and may be propagated with advantage to poor people." "I do not hear that it hath been yet essayed," are the words of another, "whether they may not be propagated in great quantities, for food for swine or other cattle." Even the enlightened Evelyn seems to have entertained a prejudice against them: "Plant potatoes," he says, writing in 1699, "in your worst ground. Take them up in November for winter spending; there will enough remain for a stock, though ever so exactly gathered." But the use of potatoes gradually spread, as their excellent qualities became better understood. It was near the middle of the eighteenth century, however, before they were generally known over the country: since that time they have been most extensively cultivated. In 1796, it was found, that in the county of Essex alone, about 1700 acres were planted with potatoes for the supply

of the London market. This must form, no doubt, the principal supply; but many fields of potatoes are to be seen in the other counties bordering on the capital, and many ship-loads are annually imported from a distance. In every county in England, it is now more or less an object of field culture.

4829. Potatoes, as an article of human food, are, next to wheat, of the greatest importance in the eye of the political economist. From no other crop that can be cultivated will the public derive so much food as from this valuable esculent; and it admits of demonstration, that an acre of potatoes will feed double the number of people that can be fed from an acre of wheat. Potatoes are also a nourishing and healthy food, relished by almost every palate; and it is believed there is hardly a dinner served up for six months in the year without them, in any part of the kingdom. Notwithstanding all these things, and they are of great importance in one point of view, we are doubtful whether potatoes can be placed so high in the scale as several other articles of produce, when the profit and loss account of the agriculturist is to be ascertained. They require a great deal of manure from the farmer; while, generally speaking, little is returned by them; they are a bulky unhandy article, troublesome in the lifting and carrying processes, and interfering with the seed season of wheat, the most important one to the farmer. After all, from particular circumstances, they cannot be vended unless when raised in the vicinity of large towns; hence they are in most respects an unprofitable article to the agriculturist. To him the real criterion is the profit which potatoes will return in feeding beasts; and here we apprehend, the result will altogether be in favor of turnips, and ruta baga, as the most profitable articles for that purpose.

4830. What is called the yam, or Surinam potatoe, is of more importance to the farmer, because with this variety he has an excellent assistant to his turnip crop, or rather a succedaneum, which is of material benefit when turnips are consumed. Perhaps this root may be cultivated with greater advantage than ruta baga upon many soils, as the preca. riousness of ruta baga has been acknowledged by almost every one who has treated upon the subject. It requires soil of the best quality, and a large dose of rich dung, to insure even a middling crop of ruta baga; therefore it can never be generally nor profitably cultivated by common farmers. On the other hand, yams present every advantage which can be got from ruta baga, and are not so pettish in their growth. Their culture is a matter of far less difficulty, as they will grow upon soils where ruta baga would starve. They require less manure, and may be planted as late in the season as the other, thereby enabling the farmer to bestow the like previous preparation upon the ground, the want of which is a general argument against ordinary potatoe husbandry. By taking them up in October or November, they may be safely housed, and the ground directly ridged up and sown with wheat. (Brown.)

4831. The value of potatoes as a fallow crop, and as an article of food for cattle compared with turnips and cabbages for the same purposes, Marshal observes, may be considered thus: Potatoes are more nutritious; and, in the opinion of those who have used them, fatten cattle much quicker than either turnips or cabbages. Potatoes, too, being secured from the severities of winter, are a more certain article of fatting than turnips or cabbages; both of which are liable to perish under an alternacy of frost and thaw; and the turnip, more particularly, is locked up, or rendered more difficult to be come at, during a continuance of snow or frost. Turnips and cabbages, if they out-weather the severities of winter, occupy the soil in the spring when it is wanted to be prepared for the succeeding crop; while potatoes, if properly laid up, are a food which may be continued without inconveniency until the cattle be finished, or the grass has acquired the requisite bite for finishing them in the field. On the other hand, potatoes are a dis agreeable crop to cultivate: the planting is a tedious dirty business; and taking them up, may be called the filthiest work of husbandry, especially in a wet autumn. A powerful argument for the extensive culture of potatoes as food for live-stock is, that in seasons of scarcity they can be adopted as human food. Here, as in many other points, the opinion of Marshal and other English agriculturists, is rather at variance with that of the Northumberland and Berwickshire cultivators.

4832. The varieties of the potatoe are innumerable: they differ in their leaves and bulk of haulm; in the color of the skin of the tubers; in the color of the interior compared with that of the skin; in the time of ripening; in being farinaceous, glutenous, or watery; in tasting agreeably or disagreeably; in cooking readily or tediously; in the length of the subterraneous stolones to which the tubers are attached; in blossoming or not blossoming; and, finally, in the soil which they prefer.

4833. The earliest varieties of the potatoe are chiefly cultivated in gardens, and there fore we shall only notice such early sorts as are grown in the fields. These are

The last is the most generally cultivated round London; it is very prófific, hardy, and mealy. Early varieties, with local names, are cultivated near most large towns, especially Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and the metropolis.

4835. The varieties grown exclusively as food for live-stock are —

The yam or Surinam potatoe; large, red and white skinned, and the interior veined with red; flavor disagreeable, and not such as to admit of its being used as human food. It succeeds best on heavy lands.

The ox noble; large, yellow without and within, very prolific,

not fit to eat.

The late champion; large and prolific, white skinned, and may be used as human food.

This

Ob

4836. New varieties of potatoes are procured with the greatest ease. The following directions are given in a useful work on this plant. Pluck off the apples when the stalk has ceased to vegetate and is drying up. The seed being then fully ripe, break the apple in a hair sieve, wash the pulp clean from the seeds, and dry them in the sun; then sow the seed in beds in March, and take the potatoes up in October. They will attain the size of nutmegs, or at most be no larger than walnuts. Select the fairest and best, and keep them secure from frost by thoroughly drying, and intermixing, and covering them with sifted wood or coal-ashes. Plant them in April following, at the distance of fifteen inches asunder; and when the plant is two inches high, hill them with fresh earth. may be done several times, constantly taking care to keep them clean from weeds. serve when the stalks decay; some will be found decaying much sooner than others; these are the early kind, but those that decay last are the sort which comes late. Take them up in rotation as they ripen, and let the produce of each potatoe be kept separate till the next year. Such as come early, may be tried as soon as they are taken up, by dressing one or two; should they be approved, the remainder may be preserved; but those which are late should not be tried before January or February, for it will be found that the late kind of potatoes, newly raised, are very soft, and cut like soap, until they have been hoarded a certain time, when they become mealy. Under each stalk you may expect to find a gallon of potatoes. Those planted the third year may, perhaps, produce two sacks; and their increase afterwards will be very considerably greater. Thus it takes full three years to form an adequate judgment of potatoes raised from seed, and, after all, if one in ten succeed so as to be worth preserving, it is as much as can be reasonably expected.

4837. Some of the earlier sorts of potatoes do not blossom, and consequently do not, under ordinary management, produce seeds. To procure blossoms and seeds from these, it is necessary, from time to time, during the early part of the summer, to remove the earth from the roots of the plants, and pick off the tubers, or potatoes as they begin to form. By thus preventing the strength of the plant from being employed in forming tubers at the root, it will flow into the leaves and herbage, and produces blossoms and apples. Knight, the president of the Horticultural Society, by adopting this practice, succeeded in procuring seeds from some sorts of potatoes, which had never before produced blossoms; and from these seeds he raised excellent varieties, some hardy and less early, others small and very early. He farther impregnated the blossoms produced by these early potatoes with other sorts, some early and some late (in the way in which graziers cross the breeds of cattle to improve the offspring), and he succeeded in producing varieties, more early than late sorts, and more hardy and prolific than any early potatoes he had seen. These he cultivated in his fields, deeming them preferable to all other sorts as admitting of later planting and earlier removal, and this practice he justly considered as highly favorable to the succeeding crop of wheat.

4838. In choosing a sort or sorts of potatoes from the numerous varieties which are to be found every where, perhaps the best way is, for the selector to procure samples and taste them, and to fix on what best pleases his palate. The shaw is one of the best early potatoes for general field culture; and the kidney and bread-fruit are good sorts to come in in succession. The Lancashire pink is also an excellent potatoe, and we have never in any part of the British isles tasted a potatoe equal in mealiness and flavor to this variety, as cultivated round Prescot, near Liverpool. The red apple and tartan are of undoubted preference as late or long keeping potatoes. The yam is decidedly the best potatoe for stock, and will produce from twelve to fifteen tons per acre.

4839. The soil in which the potatoe thrives best is a light loam, neither too dry nor too moist, but if rich, it is so much the better. They may, however, be grown well on many other sorts of lands, especially those of the mossy, moory, and other similar kinds, where they are free from stagnant moisture, and have had their parts well broken down by culture, and a reasonable portion of manure added. The best flavored table potatoes are almost always produced from a newly broken up pasture ground not manured; or from any new soil, as the site of a grubbed up copse or hedge, or the site of old buildings or roads. Repeated on the same soil they very generally lose their flavor. The yam produces the largest crops on a loamy and rather strong soil, though it will grow well on any that is deep ploughed and well manured.