310 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch. XXV. 



procuring perfect seed, together with the expediency of raising a thick 

 sward of succulent rather than coarse plants, we do not hesitate to recom- 

 mend the practice of those farmers who use full one-third more*. .It 

 should be only lightly covered with the harrow, at a depth not exceeding 

 two inches, and afterwards rolled. The months of March and April are 

 the customary periods of sowing, and if in the course of that, or the fol- 

 lowing season, any spots should appear bare of plants, they should be filled 

 up by transplantation as often as necessary, either from parts where the 

 growth is more luxuriant, or from a small nursery-bed kept for that pur- 

 pose: the operation may be performed either in the autumn or the spring, 

 after the ground has been soaked with rain. 



The mode of treatment in the subsequent years of its growth requires 

 nothing more than careful attention to the destruction of weeds, — especially 

 root-weeds, — both by the harrow and by hand-weeding, for if that be at all 

 neglected, they will soon render the crop unproductive. It is, indeed, 

 seldom suffered to be left upon the ground beyond eight years, because of 

 the great difficulty of preventing it from being choaked within that time, 

 though there are numerous well-attested accounts of its being still standing 

 in perfection during a much longer period. Every second year it should 

 have a top-dressing of ashes or soaper's-waste, and gypsum has been laid 

 on every year with good effect ; but dung, though much used, is not to be 

 recommended, both as rendering the plants so tender as to injure their 

 future growth, and also filling the land with weeds. If these dressings be 

 not neglected, and if the cleansing of the land be carefidly attended to, the 

 crops will every year become better, for although the grass may not stand so 

 high, it will be closer at the bottom, and the herbage becomes more nutritive. 



It is sooner ready for cutting than any of the grasses, in a favourable 

 season, perhaps so early as about the middle of April, at which time it will 

 probably have reached to full two feet, or even more, in height ; but it 

 should be cut before it comes into blossom, as it will then push forward its 

 new shoots with greater promptitude and vigour, and during the remainder 

 of the year it may generally be again cut three or four times, at nearly 

 equi-distant periods, until the end of October. 



It is made into hay in the same manner as sainfoin ; and, while yet in a 

 very green state, it has been sometimes stacked upon the prospect of rain, by 

 placing it with alternate layers of dry oat-straw, which have thus prevented 

 it from heating, and have absorbed so much of its superabundant moisture 

 as to render it very palatable to working horses when cut into chaff f. 



When meant to stand for seed, it is generally only during the last year 

 of its remaining upon the ground that it is reserved for that purpose ; and 

 then, only the first crop is cut before it comes into blossom. The ripeness 

 of the pods is easily known by their elasticity, as they will fly open upon 

 being handled : they should be cut off with a sharp sickle, and then placed 

 upon cloths and spread out in the sun to dry — the haulm being afterwards 

 mown and used as straw. When sufficiently hardened to be thrashed, 

 that is effected by putting them in bags ; and the seed is afterwards passed 

 through various sieves, much in the same manner as that of clover, but 

 the process is not so troublesome, and the produce is less : the major part 

 of the seed, however, comes from abroad. 



Among the casualties to which lucerne is subject are the mildew, which 

 soon changes the plant, both leaves and stalk, from a light lucid green to 



In the statement mentioned in the note at the head of this article, 251bs. were con- 

 sidered preferable to 18 lbs., although the seed was drilled. 

 + Malcolm's Mod. Husb., vol. iii. p. 7i>. 



