FURZE, GORSE, OR WHIN:

Otago Witness, Issue 1652, 21 July 1883, Page 6

FURZE, GORSE, OR WHIN:

Food fob Stock and Manure fob Plants.

One can scarcely take up an agricultural paper and read the reports of farmers' clubs and agricultural societies without being convinced that there is a great deal of truth in the following remarks taken from the English Agricultural Gazette :—•" Whatever the question before a farmer's club may be it is certain to be answered by a 'yes' as well as a 'no,' and it will receive more than one reply of either sort. Deep or shallow ploughing, deep or shallow drainage, pure or cross breeding, liberal or careful feeding, the use of bought cattle, food, or the use of bought manures, seeds or no seeds, aye ! and weeds or no weeds, even education or no education. Everything is defended, everything is disputed j and not only by the theorist on the one side and the experienced man upon the other, men greyheaded in farm management are among themselves as far apart as east and west, not only on the details, but; on the very principles of their practice." This is especially noticeable in reading the discussions in the Home papers in reference to what is due to the tenant on leaving his farm for unexhausted improvements. One important and pleasing feature is, while the parties differ on many points they agree to work on together for the general good, apparently believing that the good of all is the gocd of the individual and the good of the individual is of benefit to all. If the farmers in this portion of New Zealand could be brought to this state it would be of great advantage to every cultivator of the soil in it. If our neighbours "see with other larger eyes than ours " let us be thankful that we have neighbours who are blest with such vision, and take hold of their hands to be led into the fields of ripened grain or up on to hills covered with bleating flock or bellowing oxdn. When such .men as Dr Voelcker, Sir J. B. Lawes, Mr Howard, M.P. for Bedford, and other similar celebrities, take hold of the hands of the less favoured by circumstances, and work on for the general good of agriculture in England, we in New Zealand should not stand aside or separate ourselves one from another because we cannot see eye to eye with each other concerning the details of farm operations. Let the readers of this journal ever remember the advancement of our several districts as if the whole Colony depends upon the exertions of the individual residents. I think no one will call the statement in question, when I say that gorse grows abundantly, throughout the whole of this province. This " forage crop " I have mentioned by three names— Furze, Gorse, Whin; which Scott Burn says, respectively represent its Irish, English, and Scotch names. In this I think he makes a mistake. However, my purpose is not to spend time in discussing the origin of names. All my readers will know what plant I mean. By its quick growth and bushy character, it soon makes a capital hedge and in the higher and colder and more windy districts, it gives splendid shelter for cattle and sheep. Does the reader know that it makes splendid food also? Many act as though it were only good for division and shelter, and when it reaches a certain stage of growth burn it, or cut it, and leave it by the roadside to rot. To do this is quite as bad and unprofitable a practice as the burning of straw, or leaving it by the hedgeside to decay. I think gorse may be used to great profit, in Otago especially, as it grows so quickly and abundantly. In some places it is used to great advantage. Not very long ago I was over a sheep farm. My attention was arrested by the unique appearance of the young gorse bushes. No nurseryman could trim his shrubs in a neater manner than these bushes were trimmed by the sheep. As high as the sheep could reach when standing on their hind legs the young gorse was eaten close into the hard wood ; and the owner told me that such is the case every year. My duties often take me from house to house. Whenever I tie my horse near to a gorse hedge he at once begins to eat, and seems to relish the gorse as a dainty morsel. Of course this is no new discovery. I mention these simple things here because I think many farmers have a like experience. By-and-by it may pay us better to grow other crops, but in the meantime, when it is difficult to do so (and that for the want of capital) and when gorse is growing so abundantly (too much so in some places) that it is a question how to keep it within bounds, may we not utilise it by feeding our stock with it, or by converting it into manure by using it as bedding^ or both ? I notice that in some partß of America the people wish they could grow it as easily as it is grown in England. In Britain there are three varieties grown — the common furze (Wlex Europceus), the dwarf furze {Uler panus), and the upright or Irish furze ( Ulex strictus). In some instances it is cultivated as a regular forage crop. The seed is sown in drills twenty-four inches apart, and in tho month corresponding to our October. It flourishes in almost any kind of soil, and although benefited by a moderate rain, it resists drought in a remarkable manner. It might therefore be grown on some of our highlying and otherwise unworkable slopes, giving both food and shelter to the poor animals that are now doomed to wander on thoße bleak, foodless places. The plant should bo cut young. The first cutting is made in the autumn of the second year, and before it is given to stock it is crushed by a machine or by a hand mallet. It is valuable because a cutting may be obtained during the winter months. It is stated by Johnston that as much as 14 tons per acre has hwn obtained by Rev, Mr Town..

send, of Aghada, Co. Cork. The following table will show its comparative value as food : — '.OMFOSmON OF VARIOUS PO"DBR PLANTS. 100 PARTS OF EA)H CONTAIN:—

[f we compare the gorse with rape we shall see that it contains less water and more albumiaoids (flesh-forming materials), more fats — nearly double as much, more than twice the quantity oi sugar (heat producing matter), .tlthough it has more woody-fibre. Surely it is worth while to try to make use of some of this valuable food instead, of placing oneself in difficulties by borrowing capital to grow the more easily eaten, but not more useful foods. Her Majesty's Consul at Oporto has recently furnished to the Foreign Office a thoughtful and elaborate report on "Field Husbandry »nd Cattle Feeding in Northern Portugal." From it we learn that farming is defective in almost every particular, tha only redeeming point being the use which the inhabitants make of furze, namely cattle bedding. In the first place it releases for food purposes all the straw produced on the farm. In the second place it directly restores to the soil many valuable elements of plant food. Every farm in Northern Portugal has about one tenth in furze. The land selected for its growth is high- lying, poor in quality, and without water for irrigation, but is within easy reach of the farm by cart road. A third of the crop is cut every third year. A thin plantation of pines grows with it. The furze when cut down is gathered up with the low-growing plants and pine needles. The work of cutting is done at any spare time, and the furze .is used sometimes green and fresh, but generally in a dried state. "The furze prickles, even when the plant is in a green state, give no trouble, are weak and slender, and are quickly worn off by the hoofs of treading cattle Furze is a litter plant which has much to recommend it. It is a perennial cut at three years of age, and is evergreen, and ever, in the winter and summer, in the full of its growth and bloom. It has advantages in both points over any annual corn, the straw of which, when the seed has ripened, is but a corpus mortuum, without sap or vitality. Moreover, the semiligneous structure of the furze plant causes it to absorb liquids more quickly and more thoroughly than the hard, cane-like stalks of straw, and this more intimate absorption of liquid — or, perhaps, because the plant possesses some peculiar antiseptic property, is the reason that, in a stable or cowhouse furze littered, there is no escape of those ammoniacal gases and evil smells that are noticeable, and must be uneconomical, and probably harmful in Btraw-littered lairs." In harmony with this last statement Dr Voelcker said, Merely to tread straw into dung, in order to produce something out of it is one of the most wasteful proceedings that can be conceived. Straw is far too valuable as a food, and far too poor as a manure to bear being trodden into a manure. However, the difficulty with most farmers is to provide sufficient straw as litter."

Will some of the many small farm settlers, who keep cattle and milking cows, and have at this season great difficulty in moving about the outbuildings, give the gorse a trial ? William Jenner.

■Rape Yellow lupin Gree*i rye Sorgho . . Rib-grassi b-grass plantin I Prickly comfrey {Yarrow (dried) .. Chicory leaves .. Gorse (cut. rather dry in Aucr to Feb.) .. Cattle eabbige, drumhead (Anderson) Outer leaves Inner leaves Inner leaves (Voelcker).. Cattle melon 91-08 94 48 89-42 22-98 72 00 90*-94 87-06 89 20 75 40 81-80 84-78 86-30 88 41 1-63 0-94 1-50 1-53 3-21 'o a Jj_ 3-13 2 38 2 71 2 19 2-18 2-87 2-71 10-84 1-01 o*oß 073 1-18 ' 2*51 0-6* 037 089 i 2 55 0-66 ! 4-5-06 4-08 7'ol 3 51 8 20 ! 4 I il 4-00 3 96 919 ! 10-97 i 60S 40 6-89 4546 ' 1 6 63 1 14 1-65 1333 3269 6 •3 o o 3 56 3-22 10 50 403 5 10 4 39 2 23 0 60 0-85 0 60 2 03 161 OSO 1-36 0-99 130 2 04 199 900 1-04 S3