EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



TENTH REPORT. 



CXXVI. CROPS. (Continued.) 



11. LUCERN. Lucern is cultivated very extensively in France, 

 and, indeed, may be considered as their great dependence for 

 green fodder. It is a general opinion that no plant will, in this 

 respect, yield a greater return. Indian corn will yield more 

 green food, but a crop of lucern may be got much earlier. Three 

 things are important in the culture of it ; first, that the soil on 

 which it is sown should be rich ; second, that it should be deep, 

 good in the subsoil as in the surface soil ; and third, that it 

 should be kept clean from weeds. On my visit to an admirably 

 managed farm, about twenty miles from Paris, where every thing 

 indicated the most exact care and attention, and which might 

 almost be cited as a model farm, the farmer informed me that his 

 lucern, which he cultivated largely, was usually cut three times, 

 and gave him at the rate of fourteen tons to an hectare, made 

 into hay. A French hectare is about two and a half acres, and 

 this would be, therefore, a yield of more than five and a half 

 tons to an acre. A dry season is particularly unfavorable to it. 

 It requires a rich, but suffers from a wet soil. 



Lucern is sometimes sown among wheat or barley ; but the 

 most certain mode of securing it against weeds, is to plant it in 

 narrow drills, and keep it clean by the hoe for a time, until it 

 becomes well established. About eight pounds of seed though 

 this is deemed a large allowance are sown to an acre. It will 



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