Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 1, 1802).djvu/427

395&#93; BUR this plant, was overheated, and turns out quite brown. The plant itself makes very good hay ; and, even after threshing cn.it the seed, is eaten as eagerly by horses as the best clover- hay, but is less luxuriant in its growth than the broad red clover; the produce per acre not exceeding two- thirds of that ob- tained from the last mentioned vegetable, in the same field. T. Le Blanc, Esq. of Caven- ham, Suffolk, sowed in Oftober, 17S2, a space several perch square, with bumet-seed and rye, being a part of ICO acres laid down to rye- grass, trefoil, and white clover; the soil was a blowing sand upon a chalk bottom, worth about 3s. (3d. per acre. It was folded for the rye. A flock of between six and seven hundred sheep were turned in < n the 5th of April, i;S4. The grasses were, in general, back- ward, but the bumet, in its grow tli much more forward than the rest. For the first two or three days, the sheep did not eat it at all ; a fortnight after, he viewed it again, and found the burhet eaten' to the ground. On examin- ing it again, June 4th, it Was pared close. When a fiock has so large a range as 100 acres, and eat up the growth of any small spot so clean, it is a far more satis- factory proof that they have no dislike to the plants growing there, than if they were confined to a small field with no other herb; In the second volttme of Dos- sie's Memoirs nf Agriculture, Mr. Barber asserts, that bumet im- proves land from six shillings to one pound per acre; and though p do not like it at first, they wiil at length relish it: he also it prevents the rot in . ... animals. BUR [39j For the more Successful culture of bumet, we shall point out the following concise directions, being the result of B. Rocaur-.'s expe- rience, whom we have mentioned. as its first cultivator in England : 1. Although it flourishes on stony and gravelly, as well as in strong lands free from water, yet it will succeed better ou a dry soil : nor will it thrive on grounds newly broken up ; which are best sea- soned with potatoes. 2. It may be sown in April, May, June, Juiy and August, and wiii appear above ground in about eight or nine days. '.J. The soil should be worked, very fine with a harrow, and roiled ; twelve pounds of seed are sown to an acre, when it should be slightly harrowed and rolled again. 4. The first year it must be kept very- clean ; and in the next, it will be- come strong enough to choak all other grasses, for no drought stints it, and no frost destroys it. 5. As the seed sheds, when ripe, it should be cut in the morning while the dew is upon it, and threshed the same, or the next day : those who wish to save th^' seed, -heuld feed the grass till May, a, otherwise it wiil be too rank, and lodge; in a green state, it is heavier than any other pasture -grass. 6. If two horses are allowed to an acre, it will grow faster than they can eat it .- rst crop purges them as effec- tually as the strongest physic; which, however, is the case only for three days. Mr. Kgcqut. al < affirms, that he kept a hoi^e, en- tirely on bumet ; that it l. animals of the distemper called the grease, but that this' effect: is produced only by the first crop, and that he recovered one, which was considered as incurable by any other means. Lastly,