HISTORY. 63 



well got in, my horses that have worked hard have heen kept on 

 it alone without any grain, have been so fond of it that they have 

 refused beans and oats mixed with chaff in the common way for 

 it. Sheep also will be fatted in pens in winter, with only this 

 hay and water, better than with corn, peas, oats, and the like. In 

 short, there is no hay that is made is equal to it, and the produce 

 will be double that of clover. The land where it is sown should 

 be very clean from weeds, under a fine tilth; which is best done 

 by a turnip fallow. 



Lucerne is the plant which the ancients were so fond of under 

 the name of Medica, and in the culture of which they bestowed 

 such great care and pains. Its leaves grow three at a joint, like those 

 of the clover; its flowers are blue, and its pods of a screw-like 

 shape, containing seeds like those of the red clover but longer 

 and more kidney shaped, and the color all yellow. The stalks 

 grow erect, and after mowing they immediately grow up again 

 from the parts where they were cut off. The roots are longer 

 than the saintfoin, and are not single, but some times they run 

 perpendicularly in three or four places from the crown. 



It is the only plant in the world whose hay is equal to the 

 saintfoin for the fattening of cattle; but its virtues in that re- 

 spect are very great. It is the sweetest grass in the world, but 

 must be given to cattle with caution, and in small quantities, 

 otherwise they will swell, and incur diseases from it. 



Though the common methods of husbandry will not raise 

 lucerne to any great advantage, yet the drilling and the horse- 

 hoe husbandry will raise it, annually increasing in value to the 

 owner, and make one of the most profitable articles of his busi- 

 ness. 



The soil to plant it on must be either a hot gravel, or a very 

 rich and dry land that has not an under stratum of clay, and is 

 not too near springs of water. The natural poorness of gravel or 

 sand may be made up by dung, and the benefit of the hoe, and 

 the natural richness of the other lands, being increased by hoe- 

 ing and cleansing from grass, the lucerne will thrive with less 

 heat; for what is wanted in one of those qualities must be made 

 up in the other. 



The best season for planting of it is early in the spring, the 

 earlier the better; for. then there is always moisture enough in 

 the earth to make it grow, and not too much heat as would dry 

 up its tender roots, and kill it after the first shootings. About 

 a pound and a half of seed will be enough for an acre. 



The planting it in autumn in some climates might do; but 

 here the winters are too cold, which would kill great part of the 

 tender plants, and greatly stunt and injure those it does not kill. 



