408 Bukeau of Farmers' Institutes. 



earth an additional heat. If spring sowing is intended, I should 

 prefer a ground that had been manured and bore a potato crop 

 the year preceding, because by that time the weeds which the 

 dung produces will have been destroyed by the hoeing of the 

 potatoes. If no such ground is ready, and a spring sowing is 

 intended, the dung should be plowed in July or August, and the 

 ground harrowed fine. This will bring the weeds forward, when 

 a second plowing and the winter will destroy them before they 

 have perfected their seeds. The lucern may be sown early in 

 May, 12 pounds to the acre, after the ground has had three or 

 four spring plowings with barley, which will pay the expense of 

 the manure and plowings. 



" Second mode by which the seeds will come up quicker, and 

 with more regularity, is to manure early in the spring, and to 

 plow and harrow the ground fine when the weeds have sprung 

 and got some head; and when the earliest kinds begin to blos- 

 som, plow again and harrow fine; repeat this four times by the 

 1st of July, when the lucern seed should be sown (16 pounds 

 to the acre), every seed of which will then germinate. The seed 

 should always be sown when the ground is dry, and rolled in; if 

 committed to the ground while it is very moist, the seeds will 

 swell, and if a dry season succeeds before they have struck root, 

 they will wither away. 



" Third, lucern is frequently liable to turn yellow and look 

 sickly. I have not been able to discover the cause of this evil, 

 though I have carefully examined the roots with a microscope. 

 The remedy is to mow the plant; it will come up free from the 

 disorder. 



" Fourth, the time for cutting this for cattle is whenever it will 

 fill the scythe; for hay, when it begins to blossom. If left till 

 the blossom turns it becomes too hard. I would prefer cutting 

 for cattle the first year, as this effectually destroys all weeds. 



" Fifth, it may be fed down by any kind of cattle with as much 

 safety as clover. 



" Sixth, I would recommend it to the young farmer not to be 

 discouraged from pursuing the culture of this plant by the 

 observations of some of the older ones, who will tell him that Mr, 

 A. and Mr. B. tried it, but it would not do. Experiments care- 

 lessly made or not regularly pursued, the accidental circumstances 

 of soils or seasons, afford no conclusive arguments, as may be 

 inferred from the register which I have exhibited. Out of about 

 15 acres, which I sowed last year, but four succeeded. Had I 



