134 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 



ninety-nine days. In another, a field of eight acres kept eight 

 horses three hundred and fifteen days. In both cases a large 

 number of sheep were fed on the ground after the last cutting 

 for the horses. Chancellor Livingston, in Columbia county, 

 !N". Y., cut twenty-five tons from an acre in five mowings. It 

 is ready for cutting about the first of May, and may be cut over 

 every thirty days thereafter. It is remarkably adapted for 

 milch cows, where the milk is sold in the market, but butter 

 made from it is not so sweet as from other grasses. It is greatly 

 relished by both horses and cattle ; one hundred pounds of it 

 will make twenty-five pounds of dry hay, and its nutritive 

 powers bear such a relation to those of timothy, that it is worth 

 $3 13 per ton, when that grass is worth $5. 



The only difficulty with lucerne is, to get it started. It must 

 be sown in drills, and carefully hoed until it is large enough to 

 cover the ground. If this precaution is taken, and a drouth 

 does not occur just as the young plants are starting, it will be 

 pretty sure to succeed, and will last for twenty-five or thirty 

 years. If, however, it is overrun with weeds in the beginning, 

 or a severe drouth occurs, it grows feebly and soon dries out. 

 The seed is covered with a very hard and compact coat, which, 

 if the weather be dry, will greatly retard vegetation. It is, 

 therefore, generally the practice to steep it in warm water, 

 to soften the coat, for six or eight hours before sowing. From 

 fourteen to eighteen pounds of seeds are usually sown on an 

 acre ; but, as many of the seeds are imperfect, and as fine and 

 succulent plants are more desirable than coarse and rank ones, 

 it is better economy to sow twenty-five pounds. 



The following table gives the comparative value of lucerne 

 and common pasture. After being kept on lucerne for about 

 ten days, the milk of three cows was separately measured, and 

 the produce in Scotch pints was, on the 28th of May, as follows : 



No. 1. Calved in March, gave 13 pints. 



No. 2. Calved in January, gave 10| 



No. 3. Calved in May, gave 10 " 



