The Farm.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IX, Issue 467, 24 March 1882, Page 23

The Farm.

Gorse for WitfTErc Feeding. — There is a common, despised plant or shrub, very familiar to the eyes of those cottagers who reside ( n the borders of heath was'es, which probably deserves much greater attention from farmers and stock keepoM than it has hitherto received. Gorse, furze, or whin, is so well known by one or other of these names in almost every district of th« United Kingdom that it is scarcely necessary to mention that its chief use hitherto has been that of furnishing iuel f >r farm houses, brick kilns, and the cottager's hearth. An object of beauty on the heather waste it has always been, especially when in bloom, and poets have sung its praises in biph strains ; but it has been as jet left too much out in the deseit wild, very few thinking it worth while to give the plant a habitation r^fti the farm, to be utilised there as a rcgubir preen crop, alihouzh its uses in the winter feeding of horses was made known by Mr. Fiascr Tytlcr while the present century was as yet young, from experience which he had gathered between 1812 and 1815. At different periods since then some couritry gentleman, clergyman, or farmer, after satisfying himself of the high value of the plant when domesticated for s-tock f. eding, has given publicity to his views. Thus, Mr. Kobert Black, Lochalsh, Ro> shire, made public his experience of whins as food for stock in 1838, aiul a brief extract of what he wrote is certainly worth repeating. He said — " At the present date, 13th of January, 1838, we have been cutting gorse for two months, and duiing that time have kept eight horses wholly on it, and the same number of cows partially so. Tbe horses are working every day, and are in excellent condition, although they have not tasttd oals this season. From what I have seen of the feeding qualities of gorso, I have no hesitation in saying that I consider it equal to both oats and bay for work horses, and superior to any kind of food that is usually given to milch cows in winter, tbe butter and milk of cows fed on it being equal to those from the finest old pastures during the best par; of summer." The Rev. W. R. Townsend, of Aghada, conuty Cork, cultivated the plant for over fifty years, arid published the result of his experience and that of several other people in a pamphlet, win rein he described it as the cheapest and best food for horses and cows in the autumn and winter months. He said—" I have had my horses, getting neither hay nor oatn, in more beautiful condition (skek as mice) than any of my neighbours, although they have had costly prooms, the horses fed with the best of oats and beans, and warmly clad." Mr. George Bolster, an Irish farmer, wrote in 1864 that, owing to having lead Mr. Townseud's pamphlet he had sown down seventeen acres of fuize, and was then feeding forty cows and eight horses on it. "Since I have had fuuc," ho said, "I am able to increase my stock ami have them in good condition." In Stephcns's " Book of tlie Farm," vol. i., p 318. there is also te.-timony to the high value of the plant ; and Mr. J. 11. WalUr ha«, within the past thiee or four year-", wiitten of it that '• gorsu i 3 much l.kcd by dairy cows, to which, when given, it not only pioduces a full flow of milk, but butter of a superior qualify in winter time." He also says "it contains much moie solid matter thin turnips, mangels, or carrots, which are the crops generally used as fo:aga during the winter months, and, l.ke most plants belonging to the order Leguminosre, alto contains a much laiger amount of nitrogen or flesh-forming cun-t-tivueuts." The latter statement of Mr. Waller is fully borne out by a comparative analysis w:ide by Professor Bh the, of the Queen's University, Curk, in which he found that in 1001 b. each of fivsh furze, fiesh giass, and lresh clover, there were tbe following substances — Fresh Fresh Fresh fui ze. grass. clover. lb. lb. Ib. Total albuminous or flesh-forming 4* ... 2to 4 ... 3to 4 Total respiratory or heat-pioducing 8§ ... 10 (o 13 ... 6to 9 Oil or fatty matter ... ... 2 ... Ato 1 ... £t> 1 Woody fibie ... ... ... 29 ... 10 to 13 ... 3to 7 Mineral ma: ter (ashes) ... ... 4 ... 2to 3 ... Ito 3 Water ... ... ... sl£ ... GO to 80 ... 73 to 83 In addition to the high nutritive quality of furze as a foo»! substance, thtre are two ciicum&tance which one would naturally suppose calculated to recommend it to attention very extensively. It produces a green crop in win'er and early spring, when farmers in geneivil have n thing excipt roots and dry fo Ider to fall back upon, and the costs of its cultivation are very slight indeed, compared with th >se of other crops Still another cltim has been made f- r the plant, that it will grow on very poor land, which I am prepared to admit aJso ; only it must probably be land of certain character. Thus, many Kiony soils near the rock, and not of much use for anything else, would no doubt yield a large produce of fuize. With the poorest of sands it might be more doubtful, unless they were furnished with some manure. On heath commons gorse do.'S not grow everywhere, eschewing the sandy places, aud selecting rocky acd loamy strata, where itcinpiocu c mineral food. Considering the high utility of the crop, one would suppose that Ihe bust of land would seaieely have ill appliances it devoted to its growth ; but farmers in general, if they cultivated it at all, would be likely only to appiopriate to the object an outlying field or two, or any odd coiners of the farm not at present of much service. There are also many sloping banks scarcely utilised at all, which might be eonverte I <a-ily into good rurze plantations; and, after the young plants had matured, such bitts would bear large annual crops of green food. The quantity which tolerably good land has been estimated to yield is fiona 7 to 10 ton per acre p t year — this, too, with scarcely any expense, as, after a good plant has been a, obtained, gorse will hold possession of the ground, and go on bearing without failure for a quarter of a century, or more, if allowed to do so. 'ifhe seed should no duubt be sown in drills, not only that the land may be hoed and kept clean between the young plant* the first year, but also that a method of taking the crop may

be made available which some cultivators consider much the best, nnmely, of cutting only alternate rows in any one season, those left coming for cutting the following year. By this system the crop, when cut, would be always of two years' growth, and on an average a much larger bulk oE produce can, it appears, be taken, th*u by rrtovring it down annually. The disadvantages at tendant on the cultura ought now to be glanced at, the principal of which is that the cultivator has to wait a long time for his firot crop. A piece of land sown with gjrse seed the latter part of March or beginning of April would not produce shoots fit for cutting until the autumn of the following year, thus takiug about twenty months to mature : and during this first growth it would have to receive some attention in the shape of hocinjr, to prevent weeds from choking the young plants, and the sowing of frc-b seed in blank places, if the plants happen partially to fail. After this all is plain sailing and the furze field becomes • treasure indeed, well worth waiting for, and the cost of preparation. However, in these nee ly h-md-to-mouth times, there can scarcdy be a do'ibt that the circumstances alluded to above would he sufficient to deter yearly tenants, with unsettled views respecting the future, from undertaking any cnteiprise in this direction. Not a few country gentlemen have, however, farms at present on their hands, most of which, are out of condition, and the preparati n of small breadths of these for furze culture might be rendered of great assistance to them in their stock-keeping enterprises. If any such are wet they would be unsuited for the object in view until thoroughly diained, as the root« of the pLant would prefer to run down amid the stoniest rubble rather than meet with stagnant water in the sub-soil. Another disadvau* tage arises from the ciicnmstance of the produce requiring preparation ere being available fur stock-food. Nature has furnished the plant witb prickles, calculated to wound the mouth of the animals, unless ihe forage were crushed before being given to them. This is the true reason furze bushes are not totally denuded of their foliage bj animals having access ti them when standing on wastes or opi>n heath commons. Horses, donkeys, cittle, or shei-p, are alike, when pressed with hunger, crop down the young shoots of the wild bushes but net otherwise ; consequently, when made subject to fieW culture, and the crop is regularly taken, it should always be passed through a gorse-bruising machine, such as is supplied by several of our implement manufacturer. Some are content to cut up tha fu zc-&hoot8 by "an ordinary chaff-cutter after being mixed with N st aw ; but I do not consider this to be sufficient, as the food would always be so much more acceptable to animals after being perfectly bruised. Although the crop is not largely cultivated in England, it has always been more or less a prevailing custom for small farmers on t lie borders of heath wastes together large quantities of young Bhoots yearly from the wild bushes on the waste land. This has been more especially the case in cold backyard tpriugs, when keep it remarkably scarce. On Lord Portman's home farm at Bryanston*, Doisot, there id an extensive she p down, dotted here und there with fuize bushes. In the spring of 188J, when I paid it a visit, Mr. James Forrester, his lordships manager, was in the habit of having the iurze tops gathered ainl brought to the homestead by the ca:t« load, which, after being bruised and cut up with straw chuff, im« proved tbe quality of the stock dietary viry much. Mr. Martin H. Sutton, in his well-known woik ou permanent pasture, says of gorfio — " It produess such a lart'e biipply of fool for such a small amount of expenditure, that it deserves the notice of every t>tockmastar. Horses and cattle eat it with avidity, and it keeps them in excellent heath during the most trying pLs:io.i of the year. It answers on almost any description of soil, and should be sown from the end of March to the end of May, either broadcast or in drills nine inches apart, at the rate of -tOlb or 601 b per acre, the land having prcviouhly be n well manured, harrowed, rolled, See." Some cultivators ate accustomed to sow only 201 bp r acre, especially those who drill at wiili-r widths than nine inches aud when the crop is iuteuded to bo taken by alternate rows, winch are only cropped every other year, eighteen inches is scaicely too w de fur the rows to bo distant from one another.— Agiucola in The Field.