362 EXPERIMENTS ON LUCERNE. Part III. 



" the flalks do not ftand to the fcythe, and many of them trail upon 

 " the ground. This year, I have ufed a fickle : but it does not dif- 

 " patch the work fo quickly as a fcythe. Perhaps flirring of the 

 *' alleys with the cultivator and plough, (neither of which I have 

 " ufed this year,) to clear the ground of weeds and loofen the 

 " mould, may help to ftrengthen the ftalks : and as they grow 

 " thicker every year, they will be better able to bear the fcythe. I 

 " have prepared a great deal more ground, to enlarge my plantations 

 *' of lucerne. The drought (tops me for the prefent; but as foon as 

 " rain fliall have moiftened the earth, I intend immediately to plant 

 " a furflice of feven or eight hundred toifes." 



The following letter to M. de Chateau-vieux, is dated from 

 Chateau-Gaillard in the upper Bugey, near Lyons, June 6, 1755. 



" Lucerne which I fowed lafl March, obferving your directions in 

 ** the culture of it, is now two feet high; which plainly fhews me, 

 •' that I fliall be able to cut it fix times next year. Some of my 

 " neighbours have fowed lucerne, mixed with oats, in a better foil 

 " than mine, but without horfe-hoeing it, or ftirring the ground 

 *' between the plants. It is now but two inches high, and is in 

 " danger of being deftroyed by the drought, which mine is not." 



A letter from the^fame, dated July the 5th, 1755, fays, 



" On the 20th of June, I cut my lucerne which was fown In 

 *' March. It was three feet high when I cut it, and has already made 

 " frefli flioots thirteen or fourteen inches long. I have let fome of 

 *' it fl:and, which will produce good fsed. This will afford me an 

 ** opportunity of convincing the mod incredulous, of the fuperior 

 *• excellence of the newhufbandry. 



This lucerne, after having been cut a fecond time, was two feet 

 high on the 17th of Auguft; whilft that fown in the old way, and 

 mixed with oats, had not been cut at all, and was but four inches 

 high. 



M. Duhamel himfelf, in the autumn of 1755, took up the roots 

 of an old field of lucerne, which were about the thicknefs of a man's 

 thumb, and fix or feven inches long, and replanted them in trenches. 

 All his hufbandmen told him that they were worn out, and too old 

 to flioot again : but yet not one of them failed. They yielded three 

 cuttings the firfl: year, tho' the foil was by no means proper for them. 

 As there flill remained fome rows which could not be tranfplanted in 

 the autumn, he removed them the nextfpring. Many of thefe plants 

 periflied ; and the fhoots of thofe which took, were much fhorter than 



thofe 



