In several farms in Essex and Kent the cultivation of coriander is pursued
to considerable extent. This is done solely for the seed, which is used by
distillers, druggists, and confectioners. In some parts of the North of
Europe it is ground and mixed with dough, to give an aromatic flavour to
bread.
Coriander is usually grown with teasel (53) and caraway (91); but, as
neither of the latter come to perfection until the second year after they
have been sown, the coriander is harvested without interfering with the
other crops. In this labour, which usually commences about the beginning of
July, women and children are principally employed: and, to prevent the
seeds of the largest and best plants from being shed and lost, each stem is
cut separately. The stems are then carried into some convenient part of the
field, and threshed all together upon a sail cloth.
So luxuriantly, and, at the same time, so abundantly does this plant grow
in a wild state, in some of the southern parts of Europe, as almost to
choke the growth of wheat and other grain. Every part of it, except the
seed, has a fetid and disagreeable smell. The seeds, when taken in large
quantities, have been considered injurious; but Dr. Withering states, that
he has known six drams of them taken without any remarkable effect.
89. _PARSNIP is the root of an umbelliferous plant_ (Pastinaca sativa),
_with winged and serrated leaves, and small yellow flowers, which is
cultivated in kitchen gardens, and which also grows wild on the borders
of ploughed fields in several parts of England._
The wild and cultivated parsnips differ much from each other, but
particularly in the roots of the latter being large and succulent, and
those of the former being slender and woody.
Parsnips are propagated by seed sown in February or March, and the roots
are in perfection about October. These, besides their use as a vegetable
for the table, are of great value for the feeding of cattle, horses, sheep,
and hogs. Land in Guernsey, which lets for 7_l._ an acre, is sown with
parsnips to feed cattle; and the milk of the cows so fed is not only richer
than it would otherwise be, but yields butter of fine saffron colour and
excellent taste.
If parsnips be washed clean, and sliced among bran, horses will eat them.
They will fatten sheep and oxen in a short time; and for the feeding of
hogs they are at least equal if not superior to carrots. As food for
mankind they are considered extremely nutritive; and may, with great
advantage, be kept on board ships that are destined for long voyages. It
is, however, said that they should not be dug up for use in the spring,
because, at that season, the nutritive juices rising upward to produce the
seed, they are then unwholesome.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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