Now! Then! 2024! - Yorkshire On This Day

Excerpt

May 4. Ever since that May came in there has been a great deal of snow and frost, the like never seen in memory of man. In the west the frost was a great deal bigger than here, for it froze there above an inch thick in one night, whereas it was not over half as thick the same night here; the snow that fell here was also less than that which fell there, but however, if that it had laid, I believe that it would have been very near a foot thick. It has done great damage to all sorts of corn and fruit, and there is so little grass that the greatest number of cattle have died that ever was known. About Halifax side the necessity of the winter has caused them to find out a strange new meat for their goods in winter, and that is this, when all their fodder was done, they took green whins [common furze or gorse, Ulex europæus], chopped them a little, put them in a trough and stamped them a little to bruise all their prickles, and then gave them to their beasts, which eat on them, and fed them better than if it had been the best hay.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Abbreviations:

• ER: East Riding
• GM: Greater Manchester
• NR: North Riding
• NY: North Yorkshire
• SY: South Yorkshire
• WR: West Riding
• WY: West Yorkshire

Comment

Comment

References to the use of furze/gorse as (emergency) livestock feed are reasonably common starting with a certain Dr Anderson in the 1790s. I found this from 1838 particularly helpful:

The following questions were put to Mr. Richard Spooner, and the annexed answers sent by that gentleman:

• Q. How long have you used whins or gorse for cattle, and whether partially, or for your whole establishment?
• A. Fourteen years this season for dairy cows, fattening cows, and horses.
• Q. What animals do you consider it to suit?
• A. It equally suits all the above animals. Sheep I have not tried it with; they do not like anything which has been much bruised with iron. Whins must be bruised, and my machine is iron.
• Q. In what quantities, and whether alone, or mixed with other fodder?
• A. Not mixed, three bushels and a half per day is sufficient for each cow. I have four and twenty cows in one house; besides the whins, they eat per day eight bushels of Swedish turnips, among the twenty four cows, being about four pounds and a half of hay per cow, per day, and twenty pounds of Swedes per cow, per day. On this, dairy cows are kept in excellent condition, and the butter is remarkably good: fattening cows will feed fast. When swedes fail, or are scarce, I substitute about four pounds of oil cake per day for each cow, and as the fattening cows get forward, I increase the quantity of oil cake gradually; the most I give is twelve pounds per day to large cows, and that only for the last month.
• Q. By what machinery is it prepared for use?
• A. First, cut, through a common chaff cutter, then bruized in a mill similar to the old cider mill; the revolving wheel surrounded with fluted iron; at the bottom of the chase a plain iron plate,
• Q. In what manner it cultivated, and at what age, and in what manner cut for use, with the average produce?
• A. Sown as clover seed, with a crop of barley or oats: is fit to cut in November, twelve months after sowing: it is then mown every year during the winter, as wanted, with a common scythe, close to the ground: on good dry land will cut from seven to ten tons per acre.
• Q. Is the plant you use the common whins or gorse, or any particular variety of it?
• A. It is called French furze, but is very common in England.
• Q. On what do you grow it?
• A. On an old woodland, stocked up; part, a burning gravel, part, a strong clay, but very dry at bottom. Half an acre of this land is, on the average, sufficient to keep a cow twenty weeks. On rich, loamy, dry land, I have no doubt nearly double the quantity may be grown.
• Q. What do you consider the peculiar advantages and what the danger of using it?
• A. The advantages are apparent from the above answers: there is no danger in using it if well ground, and mixed with salt in the proportion of four ounces per cow, per day.
• Q. State the expense of cutting in the field and bruising for use?
• A. Mowing, carting, cutting, and bruising, cost not quite a penny per bushel.
• Q. State any general observations on the subject.
• A. It requires no manure, but in its consumption creates a great deal. Will grow on poor, hilly land, if dry, which will not pay for cultivating. When once sown, and well rooted, it yields a great quantity of food for cattle, at no other expense but the one above stated. I have cut the same ground now for fourteen years; have done nothing to it, and, with the exception of some parts of the burning gravel, which the hot weather has this year affected, it seems to promise as good a crop as heretofore. I generally begin to mow it as soon as grass is gone, and it lasts till grass comes again. If there is an appearance of snow, I mow some quantity beforehand, and it will keep thrown down in heaps in the rick yard; but it must not be bruised till it is wanted, as it will not keep after bruising. The quantity of seed to be sown per acre is twenty pounds. Mine is sown broadcast, but I should recommend it to be drilled as near in the rows as will admit hand hoeing for the first year or two if the land is inclined to run to grass. I do not feed on furze on a Sunday, as the cows do not like it unless it is given them fresh from the mill.

RICHARD SPOONER. BIRCHFIELDS, near Worcester, Nov., 1836.
(Spooner 1838)

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Original

May 4. Ever since that May came in there has been a great deal of snow and frost, the like never seen in memory of man. In the west the frost was a great deal bigger than here, for it froze there above an inch thick in one night, whereas it was not over half as thick the same night here; the snow that fell here was also less than that which fell there, but however, if that it had laid, I believe that it would have been very near a foot thick. It has done great damage to all sorts of corn and fruit, and there is so little grass that the greatest number of cattle have died that ever was known. About Halifax side the necessity of the winter has caused them to find out a strange new meat for their goods in winter, and that is this, when all their fodder was done, they took green whins [common furze or gorse, Ulex europæus], chopped them a little, put them in a trough and stamped them a little to bruise all their prickles, and then gave them to their beasts, which eat on them, and fed them better than if it had been the best hay.

212 words.

Tags

Tags are assigned inclusively on the basis of an entry’s original text and any comment. You may find this confusing if you only read an entry excerpt.

• Cattle (26) ·
• Fodder (2) ·
• Frost (1) ·
• 📌Halifax (43) ·
• Hay (9) ·
• Horse (71) ·
• Livestock (3) ·
• Pryme, Abraham de la (1671-1704) (13), Yorkshire antiquary and curate born to Huguenots: a Dutch-speaking father from Ypres and a Parisian mother ·
• Sheep (27) ·
• Snow (16) ·
• Ulex europaeus (1) ·

All tags.

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