Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 2, 1802).djvu/292

262&#93; £62] FES. bran, for store hogs, half the quan- tity of bran •will be saved ; so that from February to June these ani- mals may be kept at one half of the expenee, by a weed growing abundantly on waste lands. It ought, however, to be remarked, that young pigs should not be fed with this plant, as it is naturally too heating for them, and might be productive of dangerous conse- quences. Fern may also be employed as fin excellent manure for potatoes : for, if it be buried beneath the re os of die iatter, it seldom tails to produce a good crop. — It is li-e- wise a proper substitute for coal, where the latter is scarce, for the various purposes of brewing, bak- ing, heating ovens, and burning lime-stone, as it emits a powerful heat. The ashf s of fern, when burnt, are frequently used by the manu- facturers of glass, especially in France, because they afford a to- lerably pure alkali. — In several parts of Britain, the poorer class of people mix these ashes with water, and form them into round masses, which they call fern-tails : these are next heated in a fire, before they are made into a lye for scow- ering linen. M. Friewald ob- serves, in the 4th volume of the Transa£tions of the Swedish Aca- demy, that his countrymen mix the fern ashes with a strong lye, previously to forming them into balls, and afterwards dry them : thus, a very cheap substitute is prepared f r soap 5 and the linen •washed with it, not only becomes perfectly w'. ite, bat is at die s.unc time free, from mat disagreeable smell, frequently contracted by 'inen imperfectly washed with the eomraon soap. — According to Prof, FER Bfxkmann, fern produces the f)th. part of its original weight, when burnt to ashes ; and Scheiter, in his Chemical Lectures, published in German, remarks, that it yields the largest proportion of ashes among ail known vegetables. M. Gmelin even affirms, that it af- fords no less than the third part of its own weight in vegetable alkali. Beside the multifarious uses to which the fern is subservient, it may be applied to a purpose still more important. In the " moires d 1 Agriculture ,' tor JTSo, v. ■ find that this egetable fur- nishes the inhabitants of Palma, one of the Canary isles, with their daily bread : in digging for it.s roots, they first taste them, and reject those which are bkter, as useless. Such facts require no commentary. FERN, the Male, or Male Po- lypody, Polijpodiuvi Filix-mas, L. is an indigenous plant growing in woods, heaths, and stony places, and flowering from June to Oc- tober. This vegetable has nearly the same qualities, and is used for the same purposes as the female fern. In Norway, the dried leaves are infused in hot water, in which state they afford a wholesome food to goats, sheep, and other cattle, which eat them eagerly, raid sometimes grow fat by their constat)! use. — ■ The inhabitants ot S,bcria boil the male fern in their ale, on account of the flavour which it imparts to that liquor. The roots, when pul- verized, are an exec lie., t vermi- fuge, and have been given with great success, in tlu proportion of two or three drams, for the ex-? pulsion cf the taenia, or tape- worm. 'J- PiRBT, or Mush-la Furo, L,