270 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



friend,&quot; John Lowell, Esq., near Boston. The great impedi 

 ment generally found to its cultivation is the difficulty of keep 

 ing it from weeds ; but the sowing it in drills will give an ad 

 vantage in this matter. I have no means of comparing it, in 

 point of value or product, with the Italian rye grass, of which I 

 have given an account ; but its reputation has long been estab 

 lished as one of the most valuable plants which can be culti 

 vated for the purposes of soiling. It may be expected to last for 

 eight years, and some persons assert a longer period, and will be 

 benefited by occasional top dressings. 



Lucern has been cultivated, with great success, by a farmer 

 of the name of Rodwell. whose account I think will be read 

 with interest. 



&quot;My growth of lucern this year, (1841,) in a field of eight 

 acres of sandy soil, with a dry, sandy loam for its subsoil, being 

 the third year s growth, (the seed having been sown, twenty 

 pounds per acre, 1838, by a Bennet s seed-engine, with a crop 

 of barley,) produced me, in its first mowing, (which commenced 

 May 24th,) six weeks entire support for thirty horses, keep 

 ing them in good condition and good health, while in con 

 stant employment. The second mowing, begun July 3d, fed 

 me twenty horses for six weeks ; and the third, begun Septem 

 ber 15th, supported thirteen horses fourteen days; after which, 

 the autumnal feeding with sheep was equivalent in value to the 

 expenses of cleaning, &c., in the previous spring, which was 

 effected by the extensive use of the Finlayson harrow a process 

 necessary every second or third year, if upon soils inclined to 

 grass. The only manure used upon this crop has been soot, at 

 about thirty bushels per acre, applied twice since the sowing 

 in 1838.&quot;* 



15. SAINFOIN. This plant is cultivated in localities where 

 a chalk or calcareous soil prevails, both for soiling and pasturage. 

 It is sometimes, likewise, made into hay, and forms excellent 

 fodder. It is universally understood that a calcareous or lime 

 stone soil is most congenial to its growth, and one must hesitate 

 in distrusting the lessons of experience ; but the best crop which I 

 have seen of it and an admirable crop it was I found upon an 



* Journal of Royal Agricultural Society, vol. iii. p. 238. 



