and sometimes in this country; and the great or Indian millet (Hólcus), cultivated in India, Italy, and America.

5175. Of the common millet there are three species: Setària germánica (fig. 736. a), a native of the south

736

of Europe; the P. iliaceum (b), a native of the East Indies; and the Setària itálica (c), also of Indian origin.

5176. The German millet (Moha de Hongrie, Fr. ; S. germánica, a) rises with a jointed reed-like stalk, about three feet high, and about the size of the common reed, with a leaf at each joint a foot and a half long, and about an inch broad at the base where broadest, ending in an acute point, rough to the touch, embracing the stalk at the base, and turning downwards about half the length. The stalks are terminated by compact spikes, about the thickness of a man's finger at bottom, growing taper towards the top, eight or nine inches long, and closely set with small roundish grain. It is annual, and perishes soon after the seeds are ripe. There are three varieties of it, the yellow, white, and purple grained. It was formerly cultivated for bread in some of the northern countries.

5177. The common or cultivated millet (Millet commun, Fr.; Panicum miliàceum, b) rises with a reedlike channelled stalk, from three to four feet high; at every joint there is one reed-like leaf, joined on the top of the sheath, which embraces and covers that joint of the stalk below the leaf, and is clothed with soft hairs; the leaf has none, but has several small longitudinal furrows running parallel to the midrib. The stalk is terminated by a large loose panicle hanging on one side. Of this species there are two varieties, the brown and the yellow; the latter of which was formerly in cultivation, and is now sometimes sown for feeding poultry, and as a sub738 stitute for rice.

737

5178. The Italian millet (Panis d'Italie; Millet à grappe, Fr.; Setària itálica, c) rises with a reed-like stalk, nearly four feet high, and much thicker than that of the preceding; the leaves are also broader. The spikes are a foot long, and twice the thickness of those of the common millet, but not so compact, being composed of several roundish clustered spikes; the grain is also larger. There are two or three varieties of this, differing only in the colour of the grain. It is frequently cultivated in Italy (whence its trivial name), and other warm countries. It is a native of both Indies, and of Cochin China.

5179. The Polish millet, or manna grass of the Germans (Digitària sanguinalis, formerly Panicum sanguinalis, fig. 737.), is a low decum. bent, annual plant, seldom rising above nine inches or a foot high, with hairy leaves and slender panicles. It tillers much, and forms a close tuft, spreading and rooting at the joints. It is a native of England but not common. It grows in abundance in Poland, and is some. times cultivated, the seeds being used like those of the other millets as a substitute for rice or sago.

5180. The great or Indian millet (Holcus

Sorghum L., Sorghum vulgare, W. en. fig. 738. Sorgho, gros millet d'Italie, Fr.; Sorgsamen, Ger. ; Sagina, Ital.; and Melea, Span.) has a stem which rises five or six feet high, is strong, reedy, and like those of the maize, but smaller. The leaves are long and broad, having a deep furrow through the centre, where the midrib is depressed in the upper surface, and is very prominent below. The leaves are two feet and a half long, and two inches broad in the middle, embracing the stalks with their base. The flowers come out in large panicles at the top of the stalks, resembling, at first appear. ance, the male spikes of the Turkey wheat; these are succeeded by large roundish seeds, which are wrapped round with the chaff. This grain is a native of India, where it is much used to feed poultry, and is frequently sent to Europe for the same purpose. It is much cultivated in Arabia, and most parts of Asia Minor; and has been introduced into Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and some parts of Germany, also into China, Cochin China, and the West Indies, where it grows commonly five or six feet high, or more, and being esteemed a hearty food for labourers, is called negro Guinea corn. Its long awns or bristles defend it from the birds. In England, the autumns are seldom dry and warm enough to ripen the seed well in the field. In Arabia it is called dora or durra; the flour is very white, and they make good bread of it, or rather cakes, about two inches in thickness. The bread which they make of it in some parts of Italy is dark and coarse. In Tuscany it is used chiefly for feeding poultry and pigeons; sometimes for swine, kine, and horses. Casalpinus says, that cattle fed on the green herb are apt to swell and die, but thrive on it when dried. They make brushes and brooms of its stalks in Italy, which Ray observed in the shops at Venice, and which are sent to this country. Of this species there are two distinct varieties; one distinguished by black, and the other by red, husked seeds, besides subvarieties.

5181. The only sorts of millet which can be cultivated with success in this country are the German, cultivated, and the Polish sorts. According to Professor Thaer, the cultivated is to be preferred, as having the largest grain.

5182. The soil for the millet should be warm, sandy, rich, and well pulverised to a good depth. The seed is sown in May, very thin, and not deeply covered. In the course of its growth no plant, Professor Thaer observes, is more improved by stirring the soil, after which it grows astonishingly fast, and smothers all weeds.

5185. In harvesting the millet, great care is requisite not to shed the seed; and as it ripens rather unequally, it would be an advantage to cut off the spikes as they ripen, as

in reaping maize. No grain is easier to thresh, or to free from its husk by the mill. It is used instead of rice, and in Germany bears about the same price. It produces a great bulk of straw, which is much esteemed as fodder.

If

5184. The great Indian millet will grow in this country to the height of five or six feet; but will not ripen its seeds, or even flower, if the season is not dry and warm. its culture is attempted, it should be raised in a hotbed and transplanted.

SUBSECT. 4. Rice, and some other Cereal Grámina.

5185. The rice (Oryza sativa, fig. 739.) has been tried in this country, and, if sown very early, would probably ripen its seeds. The hill variety, which does not require watering, would probably succeed best. But there is no inducement to cultivate this and other grains or seeds when they can be imported at so low a rate. We merely introduce them to record the resources of British agriculture in case of necessity.

740

5186. The Zizània aquática (fig. 740.) might be cultivated on the margin of ponds for its seeds, which much resemble those of Polish millet. It is exceedingly prolific, grows in great luxuriance, and produces abundance of bland farinaceous seeds, in all the shallow streams of the dreary wilderness in northwest America, between the Canadian lakes and the hilly range which divides Canada from the country on the Northern Pacific Ocean. Its seeds contribute essentially to the support of the wandering tribes of Indians, and feed immense flocks of wild swans, geese, and other water fowl, which resort there for the purpose of breeding. Productive as is this excellent plant, and habituated to an ungenial climate, and to situations which refuse all culture, it is surprising, says Pinkerton (Geog. vol. iii. p. 330.), that the European settlers in the more northern parts of America

have as yet taken no pains to cultivate and improve a vegetable production which seems intended by nature to become, at some future period, the bread corn of the north.

5187. The Glycèria fluitans resembles the Zizània, and the seeds are used in Germany like those of Polish millet. Various species of Pánicum, Hordeum, and Bromus afford

5188. The buck-wheat (Polygonum Fagopyrum; Riz, Fr.; Reiss, Ger.; Riso, Ital.; Arroz, Span.) is vulgarly considered as a grain; but not being a bread-corn grass, we have classed it among manufactorial plants. (Chap. VIII. Sect. IV.)

CHAP. III.

Culture of Leguminous Field-Plants, the Seeds of which are used as Food for Man or Cattle.

5189. The seeds of the cultivated legumes are considered to be the most nutritive of vegetable substances grown in temperate climates. They contain a large proportion of matter analogous to animal substances, having when dry the appearance of glue, and being as nourishing as gluten. To the healthy workman this substance supplies the place of animal food; and Von Thaer states, that in Germany neither sailors nor land labourers are content unless they receive a meal of legumes at least twice a week. The straw or haulm, he says, cut before it is dead ripe, is more nourishing than that of any of the cereal grasses. But leguminous plants are not only more than all others nourishing to man and animals, but even to vegetables they may be said to supply food; since they are not only known to be less exhausting to the soil than most other plants, but some of them, and more especially the lupine, have been ploughed in green as manure from the earliest times. Many scientific agriculturists consider a luxuriant crop of peas or tares as nourishing the soil by stagnating carbonic acid gas on its surface; which corresponds with the universal opinion of their being equal to a fallow, and with the value set on them in rotation, as already explained. (4939.) Two reasons may be given for the circumstance of peas and tares not exhausting the land so much as other crops: first, because they form a complete shade for the ground; and next, because they drop so many of the

leaves upon the surface. The legumes cultivated in British farming are, the pea, bean, tare, and vetch, to which might be added the lentil, kidney bean, and chick pea. 5190. The nutritive products of these plants are thus given by Sir H. Davy, Einhoff, and Thaer:

SECT. I. The Pea. Pisum sativum L.; Diadelphia Decúndria L., and Leguminosa J. Les Pois, Fr.; Erbse, Ger.; Piscello, Ital.; and Pesoles, Span. (fig. 741.)

741

5191. The pea is the most esteemed legume in field cultivation, both for its seed and haulm. It is supposed to be a native of the south of Europe, and was cultivated by the Greeks and Romans. In this country it has been grown from time immemorial: but its culture appears to have diminished since the more general introduction of herbage, plants, and roots; and the pea, except near large towns for gathering green, and in a few places for boiling, has given way to the bean, or to a mixture of peas and beans. There are various inducements, however, to the cultivation of peas in dry warm soils near large towns. When the crop is good and gathered green, few pay better: the payment is always in cash, and comes into the pocket of the farmer in time to meet the exigencies of the hay, and sometimes even of the corn, harvest. The ground, after the peas have been removed, is readily prepared for turnips, which also pay well as a retail crop near towns; and the haulm is good fodder.

5192. The varieties of the pea are numerous; but they may be divided into two classes: those grown for the ripened seed, and those grown for gathering in a green state. The culture of the latter is chiefly near large towns, and may be considered as in part belonging to gardening rather than agriculture. There has lately a new sort of pea been brought into notice about Banbury in Oxfordshire. It is called the "nimble hog pea." It appears to be a grey variety of the early frame, as it has single flowers, and is fit to cut about the end of June, notwithstanding it must not be sown earlier than the middle of April. On the excellent land about Banbury the produce is four quarters to the acre, and turnips sowed on the stubble are up and sometimes hoed out before the regular turnip crop !

5193. The grey varieties (Pois gris, Pois-agneau, Bisaille, Fr.) are, the early grey, the late grey, and the purple grey; to which some add the Marlborough grey, and horn grey.

5194. The white varieties (Pois blanc, Fr.) grown in fields are the pearl, early Charlton, golden hotspur, the common white or Suffolk, and other Suffolk varieties.

5195. New varieties of the pea are readily procured by selection or impregnation, of which a striking example given by Knight has been already referred to. (1632.)

5196. In the choice of sorts, where it is desired to grow grey peas for the sake of the seeds or corn, the early variety is to be preferred in late situations, and the late variety in early ones; but when it is intended to grow them chiefly for covering the ground and for the haulm, then the late varieties claim the preference, and especially the purple grey. Of white peas, to be grown for gathering green, the Charlton is the earliest, and the pearl or common Suffolk the most prolific. When white peas are grown for boilers, that is for splitting, the pearl and Suffolk are also the best sorts.

5197. To have recourse to early sorts is supposed by some to be of considerable importance in the economy of a farm, when the nature of the soil is suitable, as by such means the crops may in many cases be cut and secured while there is leisure, before the commencement of the wheat harvest; and that where the nature of the soil is dry and warm, and the pea crop of a sufficiently forward kind, it may be easy to obtain a crop of turnips from the same land in the same year, as has been suggested above. But in this view it is the best practice to put in the crops in the row method, and keep them perfectly clean by means of atten tive hand and horse hoeing; as in that way the land will be in such a state of preparation for the turnips, as only to require a slight ploughing, which may be done as fast as the pea crop is removed, and the turnip seed may be drilled in as quickly as possible upon the newly turned up earth. In some particular districts a third crop is even put into the same land, the turnips being sold off in the autumn, and coleworts substituted for the purpose of greens in the following spring. This, according to Middleton, is the practice in

some places in Middlesex. But it is obviously a method of cultivation that can only be attempted on the warm and fertile kinds of turnip soil, and where the pea crops are early; on the cold heavy and wet descriptions of land it is obviously impracticable, and wholly improper.

5198. The soil best suited for peas is a dry calcareous sand; it should be in good tilth, not too rich nor dunged along with the crop. In Norfolk and Suffolk peas are often sown on clover leys after one furrow, or after corn crops on two furrows, one given in autumn, and the other early in spring.

5199. The climate required by the pea is dry and not over warm, for which reason, as the seasons in this country are very often moist and sometimes exceedingly dry and hot in June and July, the pea is one of the most uncertain of field crops.

5200. The season of sowing must differ considerably according to the intentions of the cultivator.

5201. For podding early to be sold green, they should be sown at different times, from January to the end of March, beginning with the driest and most reduced sorts of land; and with this intention in some southern counties they are sown in the autumn. For the general crops from February to April, as soon as the lands can be brought into proper order, is the proper season; the grey sorts being employed in the early sowings, and the white sorts in the later. Young says, that where these crops cannot be sown in February, they should always be completed in the following month. It is observed by the same writer, that, in sowing after a single furrow, the white boiling pea, of many sorts and under various names, is more tender than the greys and various kinds of hog peas; but he has many times put them into the ground in February, and, though very smart frosts followed, they received no injury. He has uniformly found, that the earlier they were sown the better. There is also a particular motive for being as early as possible; that is, to get them off in time for turnips. This is most profitable husbandry, and should never be neglected in dry and warm soils and situations. If they are sown in this month, and a right sort chosen, they will be off the land in June, so that turnips may follow at the common time of sowing that crop.

5202. Steeping the seed in water is sometimes practised in late sowings. 5203. The quantity of seed must be different in different cases and circumstances, and according to the time and manner in which the crop is put into the ground; but, in general, it may be from two and a half to three bushels, the early sowings having the largest proportion of seed. In planting every furrow slice, Young says, two bushels and a half constitute the usual proportion; but, when drilled at greater distances, six or seven pecks will answer.

5204. The most common mode of sowing peas is broad-cast; but the advantages of the row culture in the case of a crop so early committed to the soil must be obvious.

5205. The best farmers always sow peas in drills either after the plough, the seed being deposited commonly in every second or third furrow; or, if the land is in a pulverised state, by drawing drills with a machine or by ribbing. In Norfolk and Suffolk peas are generally dibbled on the back of the furrow, sometimes one and sometimes two rows on each; but dibbling in no manner appears to us so well suited for a farmer's purpose as the drill. In Kent, where immense quantities of peas are grown, both for gathering green and for selling ripe to the seedsmen, they are generally sown in rows from eighteen inches to three feet asunder, according to the kind, and well cultivated between. Peas laid a foot below the surface will vegetate; but the most approved depth is six inches in light soil, and four inches in clay soil, for which reason they ought to be sown under furrow when the ploughing is delayed till spring. Of all grain, beans excepted, they are the least in danger of being buried,"

5206. The after culture given to peas is that of hoeing, either by hand or horse. Where the method of hand-culture prevails, it is the general custom to have recourse to two hoeings; the first when the plants are about two or three inches in height, and again just before the period in which they come into blossom. In this way the vigorous vegetation of the young crop is secured, and a fresh supply of nourishment afforded for the setting of the pods and the filling of the peas. At the latter of these operations the rows should be laid down, and the earth well placed up to them, the weeds being previously extirpated by hand labour. It has been stated, that in some parts of Kent, where this sort of crop is much grown, it is the practice, when the distance of the rows will permit, to prevent the vegetation of weeds, and forward the growth of pea crops, by occasionally horse-hoeing, and the use of the brake-harrow, the mould being laid up to the roots of the plants at the last operation by fixing a piece of wood to the harrow. This should, however, only be laid up on one side, the peas being always placed up to that which is the most fully exposed to the effects of the sun.

5207. In harvesting the ripened pea considerable care is requisite, both on account of the seed and haulm.

5208. When pea crops become ripe they wither and turn brown in the haulm or straw, and the pods begin to open. In this state they should be cut immediately, in order that the loss sustained by their shedding may be as little as possible. It is observed that in the late or general crops, after they are reaped or rather cut up by means of a hook, it is the usual practice to put them up into small heaps, termed wads, which are formed by setting small parcels against each other, in order that they may be more perfectly dried both in the seed and stem, and be kept from being injured by the moisture of the ground. But, in the early crops, the haulm is hooked up into loose open heaps, which, as soon as they are perfectly dry, are removed from the ground and put into stacks for the feeding of animals, which are said to thrive nearly as well on it as on hay. When intended for horses, the best method would seem to be that of having them cut into chaff and mixed with their other food. Young says, that forward white peas will be fit to cut early in July; if the crop is very great they must be hooked; but if small, or only middling, mowing will be sufficient. The stalks and leaves of peas being very succulent, they should be taken good care of in wet weather: the tufts, called wads or heaps, should be turned, or they will receive damage. White peas should always be perfectly dry before they are housed, or they will sell but indifferently; as the brightness and plumpness of the grain are considered more in them than in hog peas at market. The straw also, if well harvested, is very good fodder for all sorts of cattle and for sheep; but if it receives much wet, or if the heaps are not turned, it can be used only to litter the farmyard with. It is the practice in some districts to remove the haulm, as soon as it has been cut up by hooks constructed

with sharp edges for the purpose, to every fifth ridge, or even into an adjoining grass field, in order that it may be the better cured for use as cattle-food, and at the same time allow of the land being immediately prepared for the succeeding crop. When wet weather happens whilst the peas lie in wads, it occasions a considerable loss, many of them being shed in the field, and of those that remain a great part will be so considerably injured as to render the sample of little value. This inability in peas to resist a wet harvest, together with the great uncertainty throughout their growth, and the frequently inadequate return in proportion to the length of haulm, has discouraged many farmers from sowing so large a portion of this pulse as of other grain; though on light lands which are in tolerable heart, the profit, in a good year, is far from inconsiderable.

5209. In gathering green peas for the market, it is frequently a practice with the large cultivators of early green-pea crops in the neighbourhood of London to dispose of them, by the acre, to inferior persons, who procure the podders; but the smaller farmers, for the most part, provide this description of people themselves, who generally apply at the proper season.

5210. The business of picking or podding the peas is usually performed by the labourers at a fixed price for the sack of four heaped bushels. The number of these labourers is generally in the proportion of about four to the acre, the labour proceeding on the Sundays as well as other days. It is sometimes the custom to pick the crops over twice, after which the rest are suffered to stand till they become ripe, for the purpose of seed. This, however, mostly arises from the want of pickers, as it is considered a loss, from the peas being less profitable in their ripe state than when green. Besides, they are often improper for the purpose of seed, as being the worst part of the crop. It is therefore better to have them clear picked when hands can be procured. After this they are loaded into carts, and sent off at suitable times, according to the distance of the situation, so as to be delivered to the salesmen in the different markets from about three to five o'clock in the morning. In many cases in other parts, the early gatherings are, however, sent to the markets in half-bushel sieves, and are frequently disposed of at the high price of five shillings the sieve; but at the after periods they are usually conveyed in sacks of a narrow form, made for the purpose, which contain about three bushels each, which, in the more early parts of the season, often fetch twelve or fourteen shillings the sack, but afterwards mostly decline considerably; in some seasons so much as scarcely to repay the expenses. This sort of crop affords the most profit in such pea seasons as are inclined to be cool, as under such circumstances the peas are most retarded in their maturation or ripening, and of course the markets kept from being overabundantly supplied.

5211. The threshing of peas requires less labour than that of any other crop.

Where

the haulm is to be preserved entire it is best done by hand; as the threshing machine is apt to reduce it to chaff. But where the fodder of peas is to be given immediately to horses on the spot, the breaking of it is no disadvantage.

5212. The produce of the pea in ripened seeds is supposed by some to be from three and a half to four quarters the acre; others, however, as Donaldson, imagine the average of any two crops together not more than about twelve bushels; and that on the whole, if the value of the produce be merely attended to, it may be considered as a less profitable crop than most others. But as a means of ameliorating and improving the soil at the same time, it is esteemed of great value.

5213. With respect to the produce in green peas in the husk, the average of the early crops in Middlesex is supposed to be from about twenty-five to thirty sacks the acre, which, selling at from eight to eighteen shillings the sack, afford about eighteen pounds the acre. The author of The Synopsis of Husbandry, however, states the produce about Dartford, in the county of Kent, at about forty sacks the acre, though, he says, fifty have sometimes been gathered from that space of land.

5214. The produce of peas in straw is very uncertain, depending so much on the sort and the season: in general it is much more bulky than that of the cereal grasses; but may be compressed into very little

room.

5215. The produce of peas in flour is as 3 to 2 of the bulk in grain, and husked and split for soups as 4 to 2. A thousand parts of pea flour afforded Sir H. Davy 574 parts of nutritive or soluble matter; viz. 501 of mucilage or vegetable animal matter, 22 of sugar, 35 of gluten, and 16 of extract or matter rendered insoluble during the operation.

5216. The use of peas for soups, puddings, and other culinary purposes, is well known. 5217. In some places porridge, brose, and bread are made of pea-flour, and reckoned very wholesome and substantial. In Stirlingshire it is customary to give pea or bean biscuits to horses, as a refreshment, while in the yoke. The portion of peas not consumed as human food is mostly appropriated to the fatten ing of hogs and other domestic animals; and, in particular instances, supplies the place of beans, as the provender of labouring horses; but care should be taken, when used in this way, that they are sufficiently dry, as, when given in the green state, they are said to produce the gripes, and other bowel complaints, in those animals. Bannister, after observing that the haulm is a very wholesome food for cattle of every kind, says, there is generally a considerable demand for peas of every denomination in the market, the uses to which they may be applied being so many and so various. The boilers, or yellow peas, always go off briskly; and the hog-peas usually sell for 6d. or Is. per quarter more than beans. For feeding swine the pea is much better adapted than the bean, it having been demonstrated by experience, that hogs fat more kindly when fed with this grain than with beans; and, what is not easy to be accounted for, the flesh of swine which have been fed on peas, it is said, will swell in boiling, and be well tasted; whilst the flesh of the bean-fed hog will shrink in the pot, the fat will boil out, and the meat be less delicate in flavour. It has, therefore, now become a practice with those farmers who are curious in their pork, to feed their hogs on peas and barley-meal; and if they have no peas of their own growth, they rather choose to be at the expense of buying them, than suffer their hogs to eat beans. Nay, so far, says he, do some of them carry their prejudice in this particular, as to reject the grey peas for this use, as bearing too near an affinity to the bean, and therefore reserve their growths of white peas solely for hog-fatting.

5218. In boiling split peas, some samples, without reference to variety, fall or moulder down freely into pulp, while others continue to maintain their form. The former are called boilers. This property of boiling depends on the soil; stiff land, or sandy land, that has been limed or marled, or to which gypsum has been applied, produces peas that will not melt in boiling, no matter what the variety may be. The same effect is produced on beans, on kidneybeans in the pod, and indeed on the seeds and pods of all leguminous plants; this family having a great tendency to absorb gypsum from the soil. To counteract this fault in the boiling, it is only necessary to throw into the water a small quantity of subcarbonate of soda. (Bull. de Sci. Agr. Feb. 1828.)

5219. Pea straw cut green and dried is reckoned as nourishing as hay, and is considered excellent for sheep.