342 OFTHE CULTURE Part III. 



M. Eyma doubts whether the preference be due to fainfoin or to 

 lucerne : but he is confident that either of them, properly culti- 

 vated, will produce furprifing crops. 



He thinks that one row of fainfoin, or lucerne, planted in the 

 middle of a bed three feet wide, will profit more by the different 

 hoeings, and confequently produce more grafs, than double or triple 

 rows, tho' thefe laft are planted on larger beds ; becaufe the fingle 

 rows have the earth loofened on each fide. 



M. Diancourt fowed fainfoin, each plant of which, in 1753, had 

 a head of two feet diameter. They throve fo well that, in 1755, 

 one plant, and that not the largefl in the field, produced 23 ounces 

 of hay. 



CHAP. IX. SECT. I. 



Of the culture of Lucerne. 



L 



UCERNE, or medick, is fo generally known, that a parti- 

 cular defcription of it would be needlefs. It bears a blue, or 

 rather purplifh bloffom, which leaves a pod like a fcrew, in which 

 are the feeds, about the bignefs of broad clover, but longer, and 

 more of the kidney-fliape. 



When the ftalks of lucerne are cut, inflead of withering, as fain- 

 foin does, they fpring out again from the flubs, immediately below 

 where the fcythe parted them, and are thereby fooner replenifhed 

 with new fhoots, than fainfoin, which flioots only from the 

 root. 



Lucerne grows very quick, and flrong. A fingle plant of it, if 

 let grow without cutting, will form a kind of bulli. 



It will not, like fainfoin, thrive in any foil : That which it de- 

 lights in moft, is a rich, deep, mellow earth, not over dry. It can- 

 not endure cold rains : and therefore does not fucceed well in Swit- 

 zerland, tho' the inhabitants do all they can to cultivate it, from a 

 perfuafion of its being a fovereign remedy for the difeafes of horfes : 

 it grows but poorly neither in the weftern parts of 'France : but in 

 the fouth of that kingdom, the fame field is fometimes mowed five 

 or fix times a year, and yields a prodigious quantity of excellent 

 fodder. 



" This plant, " fays Mr. Miller," hath not yet found io good 

 *' reception in our country as could be wiflied, nor is it cultivated 



m 



