MED 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



MED" 



to have the crop perfectly well managed in respect to hoeing, 

 and if he be desirous to have it last twenty or thirty years, 

 he will then probably prefer the drill culture. Both have 

 their advantages and disadvantages ; but whichever method 

 be adopted, the time of sowing is chiefly during the month 

 of April. The end of March is commonly too early: and 

 the chance of a failure is greater in May than in April, both 

 on account of the drought and the fly. It should be sown 

 later on heavy than on light lands ; and if possible in dry 

 weather, when there is a prospect of showers. Twenty pounds 

 of seed to an English acre is generally allowed to be the 

 proper quantity. As to the distance between the rows, some 

 respect should be had to the quality of the land. The rows 

 may be closer on land that is less rich. Thus some recom- 

 mend one-foot rows on soils worth thirty shillings an acre, 

 and nine-inch rows on those worth only twenty shillings : 

 reputing soils of less value as in general not to be much 

 recommended for Lucern. Two-feet rows will admit of 

 horse-hoeing; and the plants cannot be kept clean without 

 it, except at too great an expense. Mr. Miller was a decided 

 enemy to sowing this or any other leguminous crop with corn, 

 though many others are advocates for the mixture. If the 

 Lucern be sown with corn, and that be suffered to stand for 

 a crop, as soon as the harvest is over, nothing is to be done 

 except keeping out cattle ; or at least the stubble should be 

 fed only by calves and young cattle, and that in dry weather. 

 The weeds should be collected and carried off, and then it 

 may be levelled for the scythe with a barley roller. Half a 

 growth in autumn, instead of being mown, may be fed off with 

 cattle. Before every harrowing, if there be any thin places, 

 some seed may be scattered into them. I do not see why, 

 says Mr. Young, in sowing Lucern broad-cast, the plants may 

 not be singled out and kept clean with the hand-hoe, in the 

 same manner as Turnips. After the frosts are over, and 

 vegetation begins, the land may be harrowed, if foul ; but if 

 clean, that operation will not be required till after the first 

 cutting. In the drilled culture, when the rows are come up, 

 and weeds being to appear, in dry weather a shim should be 

 run between them, to cut up the weeds and loosen the soil; 

 and a hand-hoeing and picking should follow, to clear them 

 perfectly. These operations must be repeated as they are 

 wanted. The year following, so soon as the land is dry 

 enough in the spring, and through the whole summer, it 

 must be a constant conflict between the shim or hoe and any 

 weeds that may appear. The crop must be kept constantly 

 and absolutely clean; but the principal attention is to be 

 given immediately after every cutting, the weeds being then 

 best discovered, and most easily destroyed, particularly by 

 the horse-hoe, where the rows are wide enough to admit of 

 that instrument. If the rows be very straight, the shim is of 

 great use, because it may be directed so near the rows as 

 to save much hand-hoeing, and for getting out such weeds 

 as grow among the plants, a pronged hoe is of much service. 

 Every one knows the precariousness of annual grasses ; but 

 in Lucern the farmer has a provision for his cattle, nutritious, 

 plentiful, early, and sure. Still to enhance it, part of the 

 plantation may be sown with Tares, and part with white Oats : 

 in order to cut for the first crop, the part under which are the 

 Tares, before they are advanced ; for the second, that with the 

 Oats ; and thirdly, that with the Tares the second time. This 

 last will be a prodigious crop, and by matting together, pow- 

 erfully subdue the weeds. It must be a very indifferent acre 

 that will not keep a horse the summer, and a very good one 

 will maintain two. The seed for transplanting should be 

 sown early in the spring, in order that the plants may be 

 sizeable in the following August. It is best sown in drills, 



and the young plants may be much assisted in their growth' 

 with a small hand-hoe, such as gardeners use among onions. 

 The management of transplanted Lucern while growing, must 

 be the same as the drilled crops; only the first season, it 

 being set in August, will require one or two hoeings in the 

 autumn. Transplanted Lucern has two advantages over that 

 which is drilled, and still more over broad-cast: first, that 

 each root -will stand at a proper distance from its neighbour, 

 and receive its due proportion of nourishment ; or if a few 

 sets chance to fail, they way be supplied from the nursery, any 

 moist day, from April to the middle of September : secondly, 

 by cutting the tap-root, it is prevented from penetrating ten 

 or twelve feet perpendicular into the ground, which it natu- 

 rally does in three or four years, except it be obstructed by 

 a stratum of rock, or chilled at root by weeping springs, or 

 find admission into a bed of cold clay ; in all which cases the 

 crop makes a poor appearance, or goes off all at once. The 

 early springing of Lucern is one of its most valuable proper- 

 ties. It may be depended on for much earlier food for 

 sheep and lambs than any grass, and in rich warm land will 

 yield a feeding of some account by the middle of March, 

 and continue very productive all April, in which season the 

 sheep-master is more distressed than at any other time of the 

 year Sheep must not, however, be kept on it in such num- 

 bers, and so long, as to make them eat into the crown of the 

 plants, which damages them much ; they will not, however, do 

 this while there any young shoots remaining. The proper 

 time of cutting grasses, and this, with other leguminous plants, 

 vulgarly called artificial grasses, is when they are in full 

 blossom ; but this rule can only be followed for hay. The 

 best use of Lucern is for soiling, and consequently such por- 

 tions of it should be set out for every day as will ensure a 

 constant supply. Broad-cast crops will not grow so fast as 

 those which are drilled or transplanted, nor usually yield 

 more than three full growths in the six growing months. 

 Drilled and transplanted crops, on good land, may be dis- 

 tributed into forty divisions; but on very fine land, into 

 thirty By this means, which of course is to be varied as 

 the cultivator finds the growth of his crop, he will always 

 have a succession ready for the scythe. The growth on well- 

 cultivated rich land is very great, rising to eighteen inches 

 in thirty or forty days, and yielding five good cuttings 

 between April and September. The reaping hook or sickle 

 has been recommended for cutting it, in preference to the 

 scythe : this may do where small parcels are cultivated, and 

 where the rows are forty inches asunder; but in broad-cast 

 and closer drilled Lucern, the scythe will do the work very 

 well, and for less than a fourth of the expense. The Lucern 

 should be gathered into a one-horse skeleton cart, and carried 

 directly to the stable door, if it be fof soiling horses. Broad- 

 cast Lucern, with good management, may last seven or eight 

 years. It does not attain its full vigour before the third, or, 

 according to others, not until the fifth year. This therefore 

 is an objection to sowing broad-cast, which declines, and 

 even wears out, fast after the seventh or eighth year. Upon 

 soils that are not remarkably fertile, manure should be occa- 

 sionally given to this crop. Rotten dung is the best spread 

 upon it early in winter; about twenty tons to an acre, once 

 in five or six years, will be an ample allowance. If dung 

 cannot be spared, soot or ashes may be substituted. Pro- 

 duce. The produce of a Lucern crop, like that of all others, 

 will depend qn soil and management. They reckon in some 

 parts of France, that an acre of it produces more than six 

 acres of good grass ; in others, as much as three only; and of 

 hay, more than four tons. Some of their crops have risen to 

 nine tons. Mr. Wynne Baker mentions eight tons of hay to 



