398 Bureau of Farmers' Institutes. 



by a good winter coat. The lucern exhibited a most beautiful 

 appearance; it was 13 inches high, the clover growing with it not 

 more than two inches. The common pastures were barely green. 

 As my hay was gone and none to be purchased (the year preced- 

 ing having yielded but poor hay crops), I was compelled to em- 

 ploy my lucern for feeding four plough horses three times a day 

 in the stable as they came from their work; and four sows and 

 pigs, which were regularly fed with it three times a day; the 

 horses were turned out at night to glean what they could in the 

 pastures; it lasted them until the 23d of May, and what 

 was last cut was near three feet high, — 10th of June. Began 

 again to cut for two large coach horses kept together in the stable; 

 it lasted them until the 28th. In this cutting the clover 

 amounted to nearly one-half of the crop, which was, I think, more 

 productive on that account than the one that preceded or those 

 that followed it. On the 28th day of July, mowed a third time 

 for hay; the product, as near as I could judge, about six cwt. 

 dry. The clover aided this crop very little, the drouth having 

 prevented it from rising much after the last cutting, and, indeed, 

 a comfortable part of it had dried out. As no clover appeared 

 after this and the lucern was perfectly free from weeds, I con- 

 ceived the idea of leaving it for seed, and did not, therefore, cut 

 it when in blossom, as I might have done, and have had a fifth 

 crop ; the seeds were not ripe until the 1st of October, when it 

 was again cut, and produced about six cwt. of dry hay. Though 

 the seed looks fair and ripe, and promises to yield a con- 

 siderable quantity, yet from not understanding the management, 

 or from the lucern's having been touched by the frost, I have 

 been able to make no hand of collecting it ; perhaps, after it has 

 laid longer, it will be more easily separated from the pod. April 

 1st, manured with 10 loads of black earth from a swamp, or at 

 the rate of 40 loads to the acre. It was very luxuriant and cut 

 twice before the 20th of June for plough horses kept in the 

 stable — being, when they began to cut each time, about 15 inches 

 high, the average height, taking the first and last cutting, each 

 time about 20 inches. On the 24th of July, cut and made into hay, 

 produced one thousandweight, or two tons to the acre. On the last 

 of August, cut a fourth time, produce, six cwt., or one ton four 

 cwt. to the acre. The fifth crop is not cut, but is now (the 1st of 

 October) 20 inches high, and very promising in its appearance. 

 If we have no severe frost before the middle of this month, it will 

 produce about six cwt. of hay. 



