Ch.XXV.] ON LUCERNE, 311 



an almost dingy white ; and, in a very dry time, caterpillars are found to attack 

 it in swarms, commencing with the head and tender shoots, and then eating 

 downwards until not a leaf is to be seen : in either of which cases the most 

 prudent plan is to cut it immediately down, as it will then produce new 

 shoots. 



The application of the crop is almost exclusively confined to the pur- 

 poses of soiling, for it is rarely made into hay, hardly ever saved for seed, 

 and seldom pastured, except for the summer feeding of cows, whose milk 

 it is thought to improve both in quantity and quality*. Of hay the diffe- 

 rent cuttings have, collectively, been knov;n to produce as much as four 

 tons per acre, and of green crops there are well-authenticated accounts of 

 eleven acres having supported twenty-three farm-horses in perfect condi- 

 tion, during twenty weeks, without any other food ; as well as one horse 

 being kept to constant road-work, when soiled upon less than a rood of 

 lucerne irom the 24th of May to the 20th of November f- We are, how- 

 ever, convinced that nothing near that quantity can be assumed as an ave- 

 rage, tliough it certainly affords such a powerful aid to the maintenance of 

 stock in parching summers, and comes so early into use, that we think no 

 farmer who is in possession of land adapted to its growth should be with- 

 out a few acres of it. It has been even said to have sufficient proof to fatten 

 bullocks ; but if any reliance is to be placed on the experiments of the late 

 Mr. George Sinclair and Sir Humphry Davy, that opinion of its powers 

 is doubtless exaggerated ; for on reference to their account of the com- 

 parative value of grasses, 1000 parts of the different species were found to 

 contain — 



Whole quantity o i, • til, 



of nutritive Mucilage. Saccharine ^^^^^^^ Insoluble 



matter. ^ "^^t*^-^- ™^'ter. 



Red Clover . . 39 31 3 2 3 



White ditto .32 29 1 3 5 



Sainfoin ... 39 28 2 3 6 



Lucerne ... 23 18 1 - 4 



from which it would appear that lucerne is inferior to both clover and 

 sainfoin %. 



* After being kept upon lucerne for about ten days, the milk of three cows was each 

 measured by itself, and the produce, in Scotch pints, was, on the 28th of May, as 

 under : — 



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



2. Ditto January, ditto lOf „ 



3. Ditto May, ditto 10 „ 



They were then put alternately upon pasture and lucerne during the following peiiods, 

 when the produce was found to be — 



Pasture. Lucerne. Pasture. Lucerne. 



To 8th June. To 13th June. To 13th July. TolDthJuIy. 

 No. 1. 12i 12| 10 11 1 



2. 9 J lOf 9 J 10 } Pints. 



3. lOi 10 % 8|) 



The butter was of the finest quality. — Trans, of the Highland Soc. N. S. vol. ii. p. 119. 

 I Von Thaer, Princ. Rais. d'Agric. 2nde edit. torn. iv. p. 446. de Crud. note to ditto, 

 ib. Comm. to the Board of Agric. Ann. xi. Trans, of the Hd. Soc. N; S. vol. ii. 

 p. 120. See also Pictet, stir la Cvnsommation c/e la Lucerne en Vert, in which there is 

 a very interesting account of its growth and extraordinary produce during four consecu- 

 tive years upon a poor but calcareous, gravelly soil, cultivated under a previous 

 rotation of 



1. Potatoes 4. Wheat and rape 



2. Barley, dunged 5. Potatoes 



3. Clover 6. Wheat, dunged. 



\ See the Complete Grazier, on the comparative value of some grasses and roots as 

 food for cattle, 6th edit, book ix. chap. vi. p. 534. 



