Alfalfa ra New Yoek. 397 



seen the crop for the first time, while visiting me, have asked, 

 " What do the people here do with so many fields of sweet 

 clover? " 



In Onondaga and Madison counties (central New York) are 

 more acres of alfalfa than in all the rest of the State, and most of 

 the acreage here is in six or eight towns. Under the German 

 name lucern, it was tried here nearly, if not quite, 100 years 

 ago, but so small a quantity of seed was sown to the acre that the 

 hay was coarse and very unpalatable to the animals. As near 

 as I can learn, lucern was sown with other grasses, and but from 

 2 to 12 poimds used to the acre. Economy in seed was prac- 

 ticed strenuously in those days, and lucern seed cost one shilling 

 six pence per pound. It was also tried in other parts of the State 

 at about the same time. 



In 1793 Mr. Robert Livingston of Jefferson county, sowed 

 about 15 acres, dividing the acreage into seven plots, ranging from 

 one-quarter of an acre upward. On each plot a different method 

 was followed and a different soil selected, and but about four acres 

 were pronounced a success in 1794. These, however, were so suc- 

 cessful that he advised others to try the crop. His first plot was 

 sown in 1791. Of this he says: 



" Mixed two pounds of lucern with two pounds of clover seed ; 

 sowed them with oats on one-quarter acre of ground; the soil is 

 sand to the depth of 14 feet, but in good order, having been the 

 two preceding years in potatoes with dung. April 6, 1792, spread 

 two bushels of gypsum. May 25th, the clover very luxuriant; 

 the lucern, though of superior height, branches so little, and is 

 so compressed by the clover, as hardly to attract attention. About 

 the middle of June, cut the grass product in dry hay, a large load 

 for two oxen, or somewhat more than half a ton. August 8th, 

 cut a second crop about five cwt. The summer having proved very 

 dry and the soil being naturally so, the clover did not rise suffi- 

 ciently to be cut, so that this crop consisted wholly of lucern. 

 I now experienced the want of seed, for, though the lucern was 

 about 27 inches high, it occupied too little space to produce a 

 great crop. The lucern and clover rose after this cutting, and 

 might have yielded a tolerable crop, but I preferred to leave the 

 rowen to protect the roots against the winter winds. April 1, 

 1793, dressed this plot with one bushel of gypsum. April 28th, 

 the spring proved uncommonly early, the ground being naturally 

 warm, having a South aspect, and the plants having been protected 



