in husbandry, a sort of pulse, more generally known by the name of chick-pea. See Cicer.

Fitches are cultivated either for feeding cattle, or improving the land. They make a wholesome and nourishing food, whether given in the straw or threshed out. When sown only to improve the soil, they are ploughed in just as they begin to blossom, by which means a tough stiff clay-soil is much enriched.