806 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE, Part III. 



occasionally, and given to them fresh, it will, probably, go still much farther, as no part 

 of it is lost by being trodden down. With the exception of lucern, and the herbage of 

 rich marshes, there is no crop, by which so much stock can be supported, as by clover. 

 It may be profitably employed in fattening sheep in spring, and with this food, they will 

 soon be ready for the butcher. Afterwards, a crop of hay may be got, and two or three 

 weeks after the hay has been taken off, sheep intended to be fattened on turnips, may be 

 turned in, and kept there, until the turnips are ready for them. 



5020. The nutritive products of clovers will be found in the table. (4984.) 



5021. The saving of clover seed is attended by considerable labor and difficulty. 

 Clover will not perfect its seeds, if saved for that purpose early in the year ; there- 

 fore it is necessary to take off the first growth either by feeding or with the scythe, 

 and to depend for the seed on those heads that are produced in the autumn. Seed-clover 

 turns out to good account in those years when the crops are not injured by the blight, 

 which is often fatal to them, or by the rains in the autumn, which sometimes prove their 

 destruction ; for the time of harvesting this seed falling out late when rainy weather may 

 be expected, renders it, on that account, very tedious. 



5022. When the first crop is fed off, it is eaten till about the end of May, frequently by ewes and lambs ; 

 and this is understood to be an advantageous practice, because the land is less exhausted, and the green 

 food is of great value for stock in the spring months. It is not uncommon, however, to cut the first 

 growth for a hay crop, and this should be done earlier than Usual. The growth thus reserved for seed 

 must be suffered to remain till the husks become perfectly brown, when it is cut and harvested in the 

 usual manner, leaving it on the field till it is very dry and crisp, that the seeds may become more fully 

 hardened ; it may then be laid up dry, to be threshed out at the farmer's convenience. Much labor and 

 expense are necessary in separating the seed from the capsule, or seed-coat, especially when it is effected 

 by threshing, which seldom costs less than from five to six or seven shillings per bushel. By the use of 

 mills the work may be done much cheaper. 



5023. The produce in seed may generally be flrom three to four or five bushels per acre, when perfectly 

 clean, weighing from two to three hundred weight. But there is great uncertainty in the produce of 

 clover seed, from the lateness of the season at which it becomes ripe ; and the fertility of the soil is con- 

 siderably impaired by such a crop. Yet the high value of the seed is a great inducement to the saving of 

 it, in favorable situations. {Dickson's Practical Agriculture, vol, ii. p. 863.) 



5024. The diseases of clover are the blight or mildew, and suffocation or consumption, 

 from insects, slugs, and worms. It often happens that clover after being repeated at 

 short intervals on the same soil, either fails or does no good ; whether that is owing to 

 a disease or to a defect in some peculiar substance, which enters into the food of the 

 plant, does not appear to be clearly ascertained. A top dressing with ashes or lime, is 

 said to be unfavorable to the slug ; but where vermin of this sort are very numerous, 

 the most certain remedy is a naked fallow well worked in the hottest months. 



Sect. II. Lucern. ^ Medicago sativa, L. Diadel. Decan. L. and Leguminosece, J. 

 La Lucerne, Fr. j Futtei'klee, Ger. ; ond. Medica, Ital. (fg. 569.) 



5025. Lucern is a deep rooting perennial plant, sending 

 up numerous small and tall clover-like shoots, with blue or 

 violet spikes of flowers. It is a native of the south of Eu- 

 rope, and appears to be acclimated in the warmer parts of 

 England. Lucern or medic is highly extolled by the 

 Roman writers, and also the cytissus, the latter a low ever- 

 green shrub. Lucern is much grown in Persia and Lima, 

 and mown in both countries all the year round ; it is also 

 of unknown antiquity in old Spain, Italy, and the south 

 of France. It was introduced to England from the latter 

 country, according to Miller, in 1657. It is mentioned 

 by Hartlib, Ely the, and other early writers, and was tried 

 by Lisle ; but it excited little attention till after the publi- 

 cation of Marte's Essays, in 1757. It is now only culti- 

 vated in a few places, and chiefly in Kent. Columella 

 estimated lucern as the choicest of all fodder, because it 

 lasted many years, and bore being cut down four, five, 

 or six times a year. It enriches, he says, the land on 

 which it grows, fattens the cattle fed with it, and is often 

 a remedy for sick cattle. About three quarters of an acre of it is, he thinks, abundantly 

 sufficient to feed three horses during the whole year. But though it was so much 

 esteemed by the ancients, and has been long cultivated to advantage in France and 

 Switzerland, it has yet found no great reception in this country. If any good reason 

 can be given for this, it is, that lucern is a less hardy plant than red clover, requires 

 three or four years before it comes to its full growth, and is for these and other reasons, 

 ill adapted to enter into general rotations. Where the climate and soil suit, per- 

 haps, a field of it may be advantageously sown, adjoining the homestall, to afford 

 early cutting or food for young or sick animals, for which it is said to !)e well adapted ; 

 but though it will produce good crops for eight or ten years, yet from the time the 



