or carried off the ground; and stones, quickenings, and every other thing that may hinder the growth of the flax, should be carefully taken

away.

Choice of seed.-The brighter in color, and heavier the seed is, so much the better; that which, when bruised, appears of a light or yellowish green, and fresh in the heart, oily, and not dry, and smells and tastes sweet, and not fusty, may be depended upon. Dutch seed of the preceding year's growth for the most part answers best; but it seldom succeeds if kept another year. It ripens sooner than any other foreign seed, Philadelphia seed produces fine lint and few bolls, because sown thick, and answers best in wet cold soils. Riga seed produces coarser lint, and the greatest quantity of seed. Scotch seed, when well winned and kept and changed from one kind of soil to another, sometimes answers pretty well; but should be sown thick, as many of its grains are bad, and fail. It springs well, and its flax is sooner ripe than any other; but its produce afterwards is generally inferior to that from foreign seed. A kind has been lately imported, called Memel seed; which looks well, is short and plump, but seldom grows above eight inches, and on that account ought not to be sown.

Method of sowing.-The quantity of lintseed sown should be proportioned to the condition of the soil; for if the ground be in good heart, and the seed sown thick, the crop will be in danger of falling before it is ready for pulling. In Scotland, from eleven to twelve pecks, Linlithgow measure, of Dutch or Riga seed, is generally thought sufficient for one acre; and about ten pecks of Philadelphia seed, which, being the smallest grained, goes farthest. Riga lintseed, and the next year's produce of it, is preferred in Lincolnshire. The time for sowing lintseed is from the middle of March to the end of April, as the ground and season answer; but the earlier the seed is sown, the less the crop interferes with the corn-harvest. Late sown lintseed may grow long, but the flax upon the stalk will be thin and poor. After sowing, the ground ought to be harrowed till the seed is well covered, and then (supposing the soil, as before mentioned, to be free, and reduced to a fine mould) it ought to be rolled. When a farmer sows a large quantity of lintseed, he may find it proper to sow a part earlier and part later, that in the future operations of weeding, pulling, watering, and grassing, the work may be the easier and more conveniently gone about. It ought always to be sown on a dry bed.

Weeding.-Flax ought to be weeded when the crop is about four inches long. If longer deferred, the weeders will so much break and bend the stalks that they will never perhaps recover their straightness again; and, when the flax grows crooked, it is more liable to be hurt in the rippling and swingling. Quicken-grass should not be taken up; for, being strongly rooted, the pulling of it always loosens a deal of the lint. If there is an appearance of a settled drought, it is better to defer the weeding, than by that operation to expose the tender roots of the flax to the drought. So soon as the weeds

are got out, they ought to be carried off the field, instead of being laid in the furrow, where they often take root again, and at any rate obstruct the growth of the flax in the furrows.

For the cultivation, natural history, dressing, importation, uses, &c., of hemp, see CANNABIS and HEMP.

Poor

We may subjoin in this place a few practical remarks on rape or cole seed. This, as well as lintseed, is cultivated for the purpose of making oil, and will grow almost any where. Mr. Hazard says that in the north of England the farmers pare and burn their pasture lands, and then sow them with rape after one ploughing; the crop commonly standing for seed. clay, or stone brash land, will often produce from twelve to sixteen or eighteen bushels per acre, and almost any fresh or virgin earth will yield one plentiful crop; so that many in the northern counties have been raised, by cultivating this seed, from poverty to affluence. The seed is ripe in July, or the beginning of August; and the threshing of it out is conducted with the greatest mirth and jollity. The rape, being fully ripe, is first cut with sickles, and then laid thin upon the ground to dry; and, when in proper condition for threshing, the neighbours are invited, who readily contribute their assistance. The threshing is performed on a large cloth in the middle of the field, and the seed put into sacks and carried home. It does not admit of being carried from the field in the pod, to be threshed at home, and therefore the operation is always performed in the field; and, by the number of assistants procured on this occasion, a field of twenty acres is frequently threshed out in one day. The straw is burnt for the sake of its alkali, the ashes being said to equal the best kind of those imported from abroad. The proper time for sowing rape is June; and the land should, previously to the sowing, be twice well ploughed. About two pounds of seed are sufficient for an acre; and, according to our author, it should be cast upon the ground with only the thumb and two fore-fingers; for, if it be cast witn all the fingers, it will come up in patches. If the plants come up too thick, a pair of light harrows should be drawn along the field length-ways and cross-ways, by which means the plants will be equally thinned; and, when the plants which the harrows have pulled up are withered, the ground should be rolled. A few days after, the plants may be set out with a hoe, allowing sixteen or eighteen inches distance betwixt every two plants.

Mr. Hazard strongly recommends the transplanting of rape, having experienced the good effects of it himself. A rood of ground, sown in June, will produce as many plants as are sufficient for ten acres; which may be planted out upon ground that has previously borne a crop of wheat, provided the wheat be harvested by the middle of August. One ploughing will be sufficient for these plants; the best of which should be selected from the seed-plot, and planted in rows two feet asunder, and sixteen inches apart in the rows. As rape is an excellent food for sheep, they may be allowed to feed upon it in the spring; or the leaves might be gathered, and

given to oxen or young cattle: fresh leaves would sprout again from the same stalks, which in like manner might be fed off by ewes and lambs in time enough to plough the land for a crop of barley and oats. Planting rape in the beginning of July, however, would be most advantageous for the crop itself, as the leaves might then be fed off in the autumn, and new ones would appear in the spring. Our author discommends the practice of sowing rape with turnips, as the crops injure one another. Those who look for an immediate profit,' says he, will undoubt edly cultivate rape for seed; but perhaps it may answer better in the end to feed it with sheep: the fat ones might cull it over first, and afterwards the lean or store-sheep might follow them, and be folded thereon: if this is done in autumn season, the land will be in good heart to carry a crop of wheat; or, where the rape is fed off in the spring, a crop of barley might follow. In either case, rape is profitable to the cultivator; and when it is planted, and well earthed round the stems, it will endure the severest winter; but the same cannot be advanced in favor of that which is sown broad cast.' In the Agricultural Survey of Kent it is remarked, that this seed is much cultivated on the poor lands of the eastern part of that county, under the same management as turnips. Sometimes, although rarely, it is sown for seed; but most commonly fed off with lean flocks of sheep. Cattle and sheep, when poor, are however very subject to be destroyed by eating greedily of this plant.

Of coriander, canary, and some other seeds. Coriander is used in large quantities by distillers, druggists, and confectioners, and might be a considerable object to such farmers as live in the neighbourhood of great towns; but the price is very variable. In the fourth volume of Bath Papers, Mr. Bartley gives an account of an experiment made on this seed, which proved very successful. Ten perches of good sandy loam were sown with coriander in March. 3 lbs. of seed were sufficient for this spot; and the whole expense amounted only to 5s. 10d. The produce was 87 lbs. of seed, which, valued at 3d., yielded a profit of 15s. 11d. or £15 18s. 4d. per acre. He afterwards made several other experiments on a larger scale; but none of the crops turned out so well, though all of them afforded a good profit.

Canary seed has been cultivated in large quantities in the Isle of Thanet, where it is said they have had frequently twenty bushels to an acre. Mr. Bartley sowed half an acre of ground, the soil a mixture of loam and clay, but had only eight bushels and a half, or seventeen bushels per acre. With this produce, however, he had a profit of £4 2s. 3d. per acre.

In Kent, where this seed is much cultivated, Mr. Boys says, there are three kinds of tilths for it, viz. summer fallow, bean stubble, and clover lay; the last he considers the best. If the land is not very rich, a coat of rotten dung is frequently spread for it. Whether manured or not, the tillage necessary is to plough the land the first opportunity that offers after wheat-sowing is done; and, as soon as the land is tolerably dry in the spring, furrows are made about eleven or

twelve inches apart, and the seed is sown broadcast, about four or five gallons per acre, and well harrowed in. When the blade appears, and the rows are distinct, the intervals are immediately hoed with a Dutch hoe, and afterwards, in May or June, the hoeing is repeated with a common hoe: carefully cutting up every weed, and thinning the plants in the furrows, if they are too thick. It is cut in the harvest, which is always later than any corn crop, with a hook, called a twibil and a hink; by which it is laid in lumps, or wads, of about half a sheaf of each. The seed clings remarkably to the husk; and, to detach it, the crop must be left a long time on the ground to receive moisture sufficient to destroy the texture of the envelopment, otherwise it would be hardly possible to thresh out the seed. The wads are turned from time to time, to have the full benefit of the rains and sun.

Radish seed. For this crop the land should be clean, full of manure, and ploughed a good depth in the early part of the winter. In heat they cultivate the early short top, the salmon, and the turnip rooted. The seed is sown on furrows, about ten inches apart in a dry time in the month of March, about two or three gal lons per acre. As soon as the plants appear, every other row is cut up with a horse-hoe, leaving the rows twenty inches apart. When the plants get two or three rough leaves, they are hoed out in rows, and are then kept clean by repeated horse and hand-hoeing when necessary, leaving the plants at about eighteen inches distance. The crop is seldom fit to reap till October, and sometimes is out in the fields till Christmas, without receiving injury from wet weather it being necessary that it should have much rain to rot the pods, that it may thresh well. The produce is from eight to twenty-four bushels per acre.

Spinach seed.-Two sorts of this seed are cultivated, the prickly and the round: both are sown in furrows, about twelve or fourteen inches apart; the prickly, six gallons per acre, and the round four. Early in March, when the plants have leaves about an inch or two in length, they are hoed out to the distance of four or five inches. When the crop is in full bloom, the greater part of the male plants are drawn out by hand, and given profitably to young pigs; by which operation the female plants have more room to grow, and perfect their seed. The crop, when ripe, is pulled up, and threshed in the field on a cloth, or carried to the barn for that purpose.

Of woad. The use of woad in dyeing is weil known (see ISATIS and WOAD), and the consumption is so great that the raising of the plant might undoubtedly be an object to a husbandman, provided he could get it properly manufactured for the dyers, and could overcome their prejudices. The growing of this plant was long in a manner monopolised in particular places, particularly at Keynsham near Bristol Mr. Bartley informs us that, in a conversation he had with these growers, the latter asserted that the growth of woad was peculiar to their soil. This is a blackish heavy mould, with a

considerable proportion of clay; but works freely; that of Brislington, where Mr. Bartley resided, was a hazel, sandy loam: nevertheless, having sowed half an acre of this soil with, woad seed, it throve so well that he never saw a better crop at Keynsham. Woad grows to the greatest advantage on a light black rich soil, which has a southern situation. Land intended for it should be dunged a year before it is sown with this plant, and made first to bear a crop of wheat, &c. This being taken off, three deep stirrings should be given with the plough, the first in November, and the other two in spring. It is often sown so early as in the beginning of April; but, when it is too cold at that period, the sowing must be deferred till May. In this climate, however, it is often not sown until some time later.

In some parts of Kent this plant is much cultivated. It is frequently sown on poor, stiff, and some chalky lands, in the proportion of ten or twelve lbs. of seed to the acre, and among beans before the last hoeing in the beginning of July. It requires no culture while growing, unless the land be full of weeds; in which case the weeds must be drawn out by the hand, or cut up with a narrow hoe. When the plants have produced their bloom up to the top of the stem, they are pulled up, then tied by a single stalk in small handfuls, and set up in a conical form to ripen. When thoroughly dry, the seed is shaken out on a cloth or into a tub, the plants being then bound with rope-yarn into bundles, each weighing 30 lbs.: sixty of these bundles make a load of woad, the price of which is generally from £4 to £10. The Keynsham growers are said to cultivate and prepare it in the best manner.

Of madder.-This is a plant also used by the dyers. See DYEING and RUBIA. It was formerly much cultivated in the eastern part of Kent: 'I am firmly persuaded,' says Mr. Boys, that good crops of excellent madder may be raised in Kent, on soils properly adapted for the purpose; and that it would be a profitable article of culture, if it were never under £3 per cwt., nor would the buyers be injured by a restriction to this price; but then the legislature must interfere to prevent the importation of the root from Holland, where it can be cultivated cheaper. Perhaps, (said he before the peace,) if that country should continue unfriendly to us, it might be good policy to encourage the growth of madder at home. I have many years been in the habit of cultivating it; but, from the low price at market, have been obliged to abandon it. There have been several modes of planting practised; but that which appears the best is to plant it in single rows, about two feet apart. The land should be perfectly clean from weeds, and have been well manured the preceding year, so that the dung may be well incorporated with the soil; which should be a fine deep, rich, sandy loam, without any redundancy of moisture. To prepare the land for planting, it should be ploughed in the autumn, to have the benefit of the winter's frost, and harrowed in dry weather in the spring, and then kept clean by horse-hoeing, until the plants are ready for drawing, which is usually by the end of May, or beginning of June: the

proper time is known by the plants having got to the height of ten or twelve inches from the ground, and having produced roots branching out from the bottom of the suckers which will be perceived by drawing up a few of them. When the suckers are in this state, all hands necessary for this work are to be provided, that the operation may proceed with every possible despatch. One acre requires about 20,000 plants. The plants should have about one third of their tops cut off, and then their roots should be dipt in earth, or fine mould and water beaten together to the consistence of batter; which prevents the necessity of watering them. It requires one woman to dip the plants, two to carry and strew them in handfuls along the furrow, and about seven to follow the plough. should be ploughed with a strong turnwrest plough with six horses, twelve or fourteen inches deep: women attend to lay the plants about eight or nine inches apart in every other furrow, leaning off from the plough: by which, every time the plough returns, the row of plants laid in by women who follow the plough is covered with the earth of the furrow. The crop must be kept perfectly clean by the hoe and hand weeding during the summer months, and earthed up with the plough each autumn until the third after planting, when the roots are dug up by trenching the land two feet deep; two children attending each digger, in order to pick out the roots.

The land

The most proper time to take up the roots is when they are about the size of a swan's quill; they then yield most dye, and are of course most proper for use; but the time when they arrive at this proper state depends not only on the nature of the soil in which they have been planted, but also on the good husbandry that has been bestowed on the land.

For Hops, see that article.

6

In Vol. II. of his Annals, Mr. Young informs us, that one profit of hop land is that of breaking it up. Mr. Potter grubbed up one garden, which failing, he ploughed and sowed barley, the crop great; then mazagan beans, two acres of which produced sixteen quarters and five bushels. He then sowed it with wheat, which produced thirteen quarters and four bushels and a half; but since that time the crops have not been greater than common. The same gentleman has had ten quarters of oats after wheat.' In the ninth volume there is an account of an experiment by Mr. Le Bland of Sittingbourne in Kent, of grubbing up twelve acres of hop ground. Part of the hops were grubbed up and mazagan beans sown in their stead; but the seed being bad, and the summer dry, the crop turned out very indifferent. Next year the remainder of the hops were grubbed up, and the whole twelve acres sown with wheat; but still the crops turned out very bad, owing to the wet summer of that year. It was next planted with potatoes, which turned out well; and ever since that time the crops have been good. This gentleman informs us that the person who had the hop ground above mentioned did not lose less by it than £1500.

The culture of hops seems to be confined in a

great measure to the southern counties of England; for Mr. Marshal mentions it as a matter of surprise that in Norfolk he saw a tolerably large hop garden.' The proprietor informed him that three or four years before there had been ten acres of hops in the parish (Blowfield), where he resided; which was more than could be collected in all the rest of the county; but at that time there were not above five; and the culture was daily declining; as the crops, owing to the low price of the commodity, did not defray the expense. It is clear enough that hops are the most uncertain and precarious crop on which the husbandman can bestow his labor. Mr. Young is of opinion that some improvement in the culture is necessary; but he does not mention any, excepting that of planting them in espaliers, a method long since recommended both by Mr. Rogers and Mr. Potter. The former took the hint from observing that a plant which had been blown down, and afterwards shot out horizontally, always produced a greater quantity than those which grew upright. He also remarks that hops which are late picked carry more next year than such as are picked early; for which reason he recommends the late picking. The only reason for picking early is that the hops appear much more beautiful than the others.

Of the cultivation of apples and pears.-In Herefordshire and Gloucestershire the cultivation of fruit, for the purpose of making a liquor from the juice, forms a principal part of their husbandry. In Devonshire also considerable quantities of this kind of liquor are made, though much less than in these two counties. For the cultivation, curing, and management of fruit trees in general, see HORTICULTURE.

The fruits cultivated in Herefordshire and Gloucestershire are the apple, pear, and cherry. From the two first are made the liquors named cyder and perry. See CYDER and PERRY. Mr. Marshal remarks that nature has furnished only one species of pears and apples, viz. the common crab of the woods and hedges, and the wild pear, which is also pretty common. The varieties of these fruits are entirely artificial, being produced not from seed, but by a certain mode of culture; whence it is the business of those who wish to improve fruit to catch at superior accidental varieties; and, having raised them by cultivation to the highest perfection of which they are capable, to keep them in that state by artificial propagation. Mr. Marshal, however, observes that it is impossible to make varieties of fruit altogether permanent, though their duration depends much upon management. A time arrives,' says he, when they can no longer be propagated with success. All the old fruits which raised the fame of the liquors of this country are now lost, or so far on the decline as to be deemed irrecoverable. The redstreak is given up; the celebrated stir-apple is going off; and the squash-pear, which has probably furnished this country with more champaign than was ever imported into it, can no longer be got to flourish; the stocks canker, and are unproductive. In Yorkshire similar circumstances have taken place; several old frs which were

productive within my own recollection are lost; the stocks cankered, and the trees would no longer come to bear. Our author controverts the common notion among orchard men that the decline of the old fruits is owing to a want of fresh grafts from abroad, particularly from Normandy, whence it is supposed that apples were originally imported into this country. Mr. Marshal, however, thinks that these original kinds have been long since lost, and that the numerous varieties of which we are no possessed were raised from seed in this country. At Ledbury he was shown a Normandy apple-tree, which, with many others of the same kind, had been imported immediately from France. Ile found it, however, to be no other than the bittersweet, which he had seen growing as a neglected wilding in an English hedge.

The process of raising new varieties of apples, Mr. Marshal says, is simple and easy. Select among the native species individuals of the highest flavor; sow the seeds in a highly enriched seed-bed. When new varieties, or the improvement of old ones, are the objects, it may be eligible to use a frame or stove; but, where the preservation of the ordinary varieties only is wanted, an ordinary loamy soil will be sufficient. At any rate, it ought to be perfectly clean at least from root weeds, and should be double dug from a foot to eighteen inches deep. The surface being levelled, and raked fine, the seeds ought to be scattered on about an inch asunder, and covered about half an inch deep with some of the finest mould previously raked off the bed for that purpose. During summer the young plants should be kept perfectly free from weeds, and may be taken up for transplantation the ensuing winter; or, if not very thick in the seed bed, they may remain in it till the second winter. The nursery ground ought also to be enriched, and double dug to the depth of fourteen inches at least; though eighteen or twenty are preferable. The seedling plants ought to be sorted agreeably to the strength of their roots, that they may rise evenly together, the top or downward roots should be taken off, and the longer side rootlets shortened. The young trees should then be planted in rows three feet asunder, and from fifteen to eighteen inches distant in the rows; taking care not to cramp the roots but to lead them evenly and horizontally among the mould. If they be intended merely for stocks to be grafted, they may remain in this situation until they are large enough to be planted out; though, in strict management, they ought to be re-transplanted two years before their being transferred into the orchard, in fresh but unmanured double-dug ground, a quincunx four feet apart every way.' In this second transplantation, as well as in the first, the branches of the root ought not to be left too long, but to be shortened in such a manner as to induce them to form a globular root, sufficiently small to be removed with the plant; yet sufficiently large to give it firmness and vigor in the plantation.

Having thus proceeded with the seed bed, our author adds the following directions :-- Select from among the seedlings the plants whose wood and leaves wear the most apple-like ap

pearance. Transplant these into a rich deep soil in a genial situation, letting them remain in this nursery until they begin to bear. With the seeds of the fairest, richest, and best flavored fruit, repeat this process; and at the same time, or in due season, engraft the wood which produced this fruit on that of the richest, sweetest, best flavored apple; repeating this operation, and transferring the subject under improvement from one tree and sort to another, as richness, flavor, or firmness may require; continuing this double mode of improvement until the desired fruit be obtained. There has, no doubt, been a period when the improvement of the apple and pear was attended to in this country; and, should not the same spirit of improvement revive, it is probable that the country will, in a course of years, be left destitute of valuable kinds of these two species of fruit; which, though they may in some degree be deemed objects of luxury, long custom seems to have ranked among the necessaries of life.'

In the Bath Papers, Vol. IV., Mr. Grimwood supposes the degeneracy of apples to be rather imaginary than real. He says that the evil complained of is not a real decline in the quality of the fruit, but in the tree; owing either to want of health, the season, soil, mode of planting, or the stock they are grafted on being too often raised from the seed of apples in the same place or county. I have not a doubt in my own mind, but that the trees which are grafted on the stocks raised from the apple-pips are more tender than those grafted on the real crabstock; and the seasons in this country have, for many years past, been unfavorable for fruits, which add much to the supposed degeneracy of the apple. It is my opinion that, if planters of orchards would procure the trees grafted on real crab-stocks from a distant country, they would find their account in so doing much overbalance the extra expence of charge and carriage.' In the same volume, Mr. Edmund Gillingwater assigns as a reason for the degeneracy of apples the mixture of various farina, from the orchards being too near each other. In consequence of this notion, he also thinks that the oldest and best kinds of apple-trees are not lost, but only corrupted from being planted too near bad neighbours: Remove them,' says he, to a situation where they are not exposed to this inconvenience, and they will immediately recover their former excellency'

6

With regard to the method of cultivating fruittrees, it is only necessary to add that, while they remain in the nursery, the intervals betwixt them may be occupied by such kitchen-stuff as will not crowd or overshadow the plants; keeping the rows in the mean time perfectly free from weeds. In pruning them, the leader should be particularly attended to. If it shoot double, the weaker of the contending branches should be taken off; but if the leader be lost, and not easily recoverable, the plant should be cut down to within a hand's breadth of the soil, and a fresh stem trained. The undermost boughs should be taken off by degrees, going over the plants every winter; but taking care to preserve heads of suffi

cient magnitude not to draw the stems up too tall, which would make them feeble in the lower part. The stems in Herefordshire are trained to six feet high; but our author prefers seven, or even half a rood in height. A tall stemmed tree is much less injurious to what grows below it than a low headed one, which is itself in danger of being hurt, at the same time that it hurts the crop under it. The thickness of the stem ought to be in proportion to its height; for which rea son a tall stock ought to remain longer in the nursery than a low one. The usual size at which they are planted out in Herefordshire is from four to six inches girt at three feet high; which size, with proper management, they will reach in seven or eight years. The price of these stocks in Herefordshire is eighteen pence each.

In Herefordshire it is common to have the ground of the orchards in tillage, and in Gloucestershire in grass; which Mr. Marshal supposes to be owing to the difference betwixt the soil of the two counties; that of Herefordshire being generally arable, and Gloucester grass land. Trees, however, are very destructive not only to a crop of corn, but to clover and turnips; though tillage is favorable to fruit trees in general, especially when young. In grass grounds their progress is comparatively slow, for want of the earth being stirred about them, and by being injured by the cattle, especially when low-headed and drooping. After they begin to bear, cattle ought by all means to be kept away from them, as they not, only destroy all the fruit within their reach, but the fruit itself is dangerous to the cattle, being apt to stick in their throats and choak them. These inconveniences may be avoided by eating the fruit grounds bare before the gathering season, and keeping the boughs out of the way of the cattle; but Marshal is of opinion that it is wrong to plant orchards in grass land. Let them,' says he, lay their old orchards to grass; and, if they plant, break up their young orchards to arable. This will be changing the course of husbandry, and be at once beneficial to the land and to the trees.' Our author complains very much of the indolent and careless method in which the Herefordshire and Gloucestershire farmers manage their orchards.

Blight is a term, as applied to fruit trees, which Mr. Marshal thinks is not understood, Two bearing years, he remarks, seldom come together; and he is of opinion that it is the mere exhausting of the trees by the quantity of fruit which they have carried one year that prevents them from bearing any the next. The only thing therefore that can be done in this case is to keep the trees in as healthy and vigorous a state as possible. Insects destroy not only the blossoms and leaves, but some of them also the fruit, especially pears. Mr. Marshal advises to set a price upon the female wasps in the spring; by which these mischievous insects would perhaps be exterminated, or at least greatly lessened.

An excess of fruit stints the growth of young trees, and renders all in general barren for two or three years; while in many cases the branches are broken off by the weight of the fruit; and in one case Mr. Marshal mentions that an entire