A NEGLECTED PLANT.

Press, Volume XXIX, Issue 4004, 25 May 1878, Page 3

A NEGLECTED PLANT.

At the close of a spring when h»ywa< s—l--ing in some parts of the country at fr m la. 6d to 2s per atone of 22 lb., equal to about £7 10s to £10 per ton, and oat straw quite as dear, running from 25s to 30s per quarter, the proportion of straw to grain being very low, tome may be surprised to learn th t in many places a plant may be found trowing wild in large quantities which may be collected and prepared for use at a trifling expense, and is then equal, if not superior, to hay in feeding horses and cattle. In some pa-ts of the country, as in North Wales, the farm bo> sea are maintained almost wholly on upon it during winter without oats. When cattle are upon it they thrive exceedingly, and cows during winter give milk and butter equal to those from the finest pastures during the bast part of Summer.

Our readers will have guessed that we refer to whias or gorse, as the plant is callt-d in England. It is, indeed, surprising that the trifling difficulty of preparation is such an effectual obstacle to the utilisation of this plant where it grows wild in many parts of the country. One way of surmounting this difficulty, which may be employed when the supply is limited, is that described by Mr Stephens, author of " The Book of the Farm." He writes that horses will thrive on bruised whins or furze, I had considerable experience in the winter of 1820, to which expedient I was impelled in consequence of the heat of that summer having burned up the straw of all sorts of grain on light sod. Old whins growing in a fir plantation, suppli?d young shoots from one foot to three feet in length, which were cut by a field worker with a hook, and led to the steading, where they were bruised with a rammer, having a shank 3 feet S inches in length, a bulged out part to give the implement weight, and shod with an iron cutter 4 inches square and 3 inches deep, having its lower edges sharpened, and furnished with three parallel cotters rivetted to it by their their cuds. Every man bruised with this implement as much furze on a stone door, iv twenty minutes, as served his horses for the the day. The horses relished the whins better than hay, and became remarkably fine in condition and coat. Whins may also be prepared by placing them on a wooden block and bruising them with a light mallet, having on its face a number of parallel cutters set pretty close together.

When whins are employed for feeding on a larger scale, the old whin mill, not uncommon in some parts of the country fifty years ago, may be revived. It consisted of an old millstone set on edge with an axle fixed in the eye. <~_e end of the axle was attached to a central post by a swivel working on a pin in the top of it. To the other end of the axle a swingle-tree was attached, and a horse being yoked to it, tbe millstone was caused to describe a circular course. The course was paved, and the whins laid upon it were bruised by the millstone passing over them. Or they may be bruised by a spiked roller working against rows of spikes fixed in a frame, or by passing them through one of the di-integratiilg machines now becoming common, as Carter's disintegrator, or by cutting them up along with a little straw by means of a common straw-cutter. The last mode of preparation reduces them sufficiently for horses, especially if passed twice through the straw-cutter, but it it not so suitable for cows or other cattle. Walsh's machine is a very efficient one for reducing whins to a soft and eatable condition. It consists of a pair or two pairs of axles, of which those forming one pair are caused to revolve in opposite directions. On each axle are fixed a row of saw-toothed discs, and the axles of each pair are placed at such a distance that the discs work into each other and so tear up and crush the whins.

Whins do not thrive on good land, bnt on poor open gravelly soils, on which it is difficult to grow remunerative crops, they will grow luxuriantly, and produce annually an amount of green food averaging perhaps about ten tons per acre, and worth not less, under any circumstances, than £1 per ton, and in some seasons like the present, Beveral times that amount. It ia, therefore, surprising that they are not cultivated to a much greater extent than at present on the soils for whcb they are adapted They are protected against drought by the depth to which their roots descend. Their roots are also able to draw supplies of food from a lower stratum of the soil or subsoil than other plants, and thus avail themselves of resources which otherwise are inaccessible

Whiu'seed may be sown broadcast at the rate of 20 or 30 lb. per acre, with a grain crop following a green ordp. When ones established, whin's will yield a full crop annually for a good many years, and as the only expense, in addition to rent, is that of cutting and preparing them, they yield, on suitable soils, a larger profit than any other crop. Two analysis of whins have been published, one by Dr. Cameron of Belfast, of green furze cut iv August; another by Professor Blyth of Cork, whose specimen appears to have been more mature. They are as follows :— Blyth. Cameron. Albuminous or fleshforming»ubstances... 4"5 321 Respiratoror heat-pro-ducing substances .. 875 ) n.qo Oil or fatty matter .... 20 $ v ° Woody fibre 29-0 13-33 Ash 4 0 2 08 Water... 515 72 00. Tbe quantity of oil or fatty matter present in whins, according to Professor Rlyth'B analysis, is at least double that in any .other green food, with the exception, singular to say, of heather, which, according to a German analysis, contains 3 per cent, of fatty matter.—"North British Agriculturist.'*