Book VI. LUCERN. 807 



farmer must wait till this crop attains its perfection, and from the care requisite to keep 

 it from grass and weeds, We do not think it is ever likely to come into general culture. 



5026. There are no varieties of the lucern deserving the 

 notice of a cultivator. What is called the yellow lucern, or 

 Swiss lucern, is the Medicago falcata {Jig. 570.), a much 

 more hardy and coarser plant, common in several parts of 

 England, but not cultivated any where excepting in some 

 poor soils in Switzerland. 



5027. The soil for lucern must be dry, friable, inclining 

 to sand, and with a subsoil not inferior to the surface. 

 Unless the subsoil be good and deep, it is in vain to 

 attempt to cultivate lucern. According to Young, the 

 soils that suit lucern, are all those that are at once dry and 

 rich. If, says he, they possess these two criteria, there is 

 no fear but they will produce large crops of lucern. A 

 friable deep sandy loam on a chalk or white dry marly 

 bottom, is excellent for it. Deep putrid sand warp on a dry 

 basis, good sandy loam on chalk, dry marl or gravel, all do 

 well; and in a word, all soils that are good enough for 

 wheat, and dry enough for turnips to be fed on the land, 

 do well for lucern. If deficient in fertility, they may be 

 made up by manuring, but he never yet met with any land too rich for it. 



5028. The preparation of the soil consists in deep ploughing and minute pulverisation; 

 and in our opinion, the shortest \^fay to effect this, is to trench it over by the spade to 

 two or three feet in depth, burying a good coat of manure in the middle or at least one 

 foot from the surface. This is the practice in Guernsey, where lucern is highly prized. 



5029. The climate for lucern, as we have already hinted, must be warm and dry ; it 

 has been grown in Scotland and Ireland, and might probably do well in the southern 

 counties of the latter country, but in the former it has not been found to answer the 

 commendations of its admirers. 



5030. The season most proper for sowing lucern, is as early as can be done in the 

 spring months, as in this way the plants may be fully established before the season be- 

 comes too hot. The latter end of March, for the more southern districts, may be the 

 most proper period ; and the beginning of the following month for those of the north. 

 When sown late, there is more danger of the plants being destroyed by the fly, as has 

 been observed by Tull. If the plants be intended to be transplanted out in the garden 

 method, it will also be the best practice to sow the seed-bed as early in the spring as 

 the frosts will admit, in order that they may be strong, and fit to set out about the 

 beginning of August. 



5031. The manner qf sowing lucem is either broad-cast or in drills, and either with or without an 

 accompanying crop of corn for the first year. Broad-cast, and a very thin crop of barley or other spring 

 corn, is generally, and in our opinion, very properly preferred, Arthur Young, who has treated 

 largely on this plant, observes, that *' the greatest success by far that has been known, is by the broad-cast 

 method, which is nearly universal among the best lucern farmers, even among men who practise and 

 admire the drill husbandry in many other articles. But as they mostly (not all) depend on severe har- 

 rowing for keeping their crops clean, which is a troublesome and expensive operation, he still ventures to 

 recommend drilling, but very different drilling from that which has been almost universally practised, 

 viz. atdistances of eighteen inches or two feet. Objections to these wide intervals are numerous. If kept 

 clean hoed, the lucern licks up so much dirt, being beaten to the earth by rain, &c. that it is unwholesome, 

 and the plants spread so into these spaces, that it must be reaped With a hoolc, which is a great aTid useless 

 expense. For tiiese reasons, as well as for superiority of crop, he recommends drilling at nine inches, 

 which in point of produce, mowing, and freedom from dirt, is the same as broad-cast ; and another ad- 

 vantage is, that it admits scarifying once a year, which is much more powerful and effective than any 

 harrowing. These facts are sufficient to weigh so much with any reasonable man, as to induce him to 

 adopt this mode of drilling, as nearer to broad-cast by far than it is to drills at eighteen to twenty-four 

 inches, which open to a quite different system, and a set of very different evils. Nine inch rows might 

 practically, but not literally, be considered as broad-cast, but with the power of scarifying. And in regard 

 to the material point, of with or without corn, two considerations, he says, present themselves. One is 

 the extreme liability of lucern to be eaten by the fly, which does great mischief to many cto|>s when very 

 young, and against which the growing of corn is some protection. The value of the barley Or oats is 

 another object not to be forgotten. It is also gained in the first year's growth of the lucern, which is 

 very pooriy productive even If no corn be sown, so that he must own himself clearly an advocate for drill- 

 ing in among corn, either between the rows of nine inch barley, or across drilled barley, at a foot if 

 perhaps the latter is the l>est method, as there is less probability of the crop being laid to'the damage of 

 theliucern. The quantity of seed-corn should also be small, proportioned to the richness of fl>e land, 

 from one bushel to a bushel and a half, according to the fertility of the soil, another security against the 

 mischief of lodging. If these precautions are taken, it would be presumptuous to say that success must 

 follow, that being always, and in all things, in other hands than oura ; seed may prove bad, the fly may- 

 eat, and drought prevent vegetation, but barring such circumstances, the farmer in;iy rest satisHed that 

 he has done what can be done, and if he does succeed, the advantage will be unquestionable." 



5032. The quantity of seed^ when the broad -cast niethod is adopted, is said to be from 

 15 to 20 lbs. per acre, and from 8 to 12 if drilled. The seed is paler, larger, and dearer 

 than that of clover : it is generally imported from Holland, and great are should be Irad 

 to procure it plump and perfectly new, as two years old seed does no* come up freely. 

 The same depth of covering as for clover will answer. 



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