S6<& EXPERIMENTS 0-N Part III. 



vantages of it. Five or fix pounds of lucerne a day, are fufficient for 

 a tfiiddle fiz'd horfe : but the quantity may be increafed or dimi- 

 nifhed, according as the horfe is nourished by it; for in that there 

 is great difference." 



W 



E fliall conclude this article with fome experiments on the cul- 

 ture of this plant, communicated to Meff. de Chateau-vieux 

 and Duhamel, by different perfons, and with an experiment made 

 by M. Duhamel himfelf. 



In April 1753, M. Diancourt fowed lucerne in rows, of which 

 many plants produced an ounce of hay a piece in September following. 

 In June 1754, the fame plants yielded 12 ounces and a half each. 

 He reckoned that, one with another, each plant had afforded him a 

 pound of hay, which is a very great crop. On an arpent fown in 

 double rows, he had 26400 plants*; and on another fown in fingle 

 rows, 1 5400-f- : but whether the plants in the fingle rows were fo 

 much larger and more vigorous, as to compenfate for the greater 

 number in die double rows, was what he could not determine 

 at the time of his communicating this. 



M. de Pontbriant of Rennes in Britany, rightly judging that one 

 of the moft effential fervices he could do his country, would be the 

 improving the pafture of that province, which is famous for the 

 produdlion of cattle : planted lucerne, to fliew the people howfmall 

 a fpace of ground, and that too cultivated by the very cattle which are 

 fed upon it, will produce a greater quantity of much better fodder, 

 than all the grafs which their vaft commons and extenfive paftures 

 yield them. 



In September 1755, he tranfplanted lucerne from a field which 

 was to be fallowed. The roots of the plants were three or four feet 

 long. He planted them in beds fix feet diflant, and the plants eight 

 or ten inches afunder, in a field which he thought free from weeds. 

 In this he was miflaken : for, though the lucerne made very good 

 fhoots, yet, by neglediing to hoe the alleys, weeds came up, and 

 over-run the ground. 



He mowed the whole, then horfe-hoed it, and planted a new row 



of 



* A pound of dry hay from each of thefe plants, would amount to upwards of 13 

 loads of hay ; equal to ten and a half loads on an Englifli acre. 



f At the fame rate, thefe would produce about 7 loads and a half, at 18 hundred 

 weight to the load. 



