MEADOWS. 119 



the introduction and culture of lucerne." It would 

 be mere waste of time to multiply quotations on 

 this head. Few men of our own country who have 

 had their eyes open for some years past, but must 

 have seen the wonderful effects produced by plaster- 

 ed clover ; and if there be any who resist these evi- 

 dences, or are insensible to them, they must be far 

 beyond the reach of instruction. We hasten, there- 

 fore, to another and important part of our subject, 

 the choice of grasses for artificial meadows. Those 

 most recommended by the experience of all coun- 

 tries are lucerne, sainfoin, and clover of the legu- 

 minous family ; and timothy, oat-grass, ray-grass, 

 and meadow fox-tail of the gramineal.* We shall 

 say a few words of each, and, 1st. of Lucerne. This 

 plant is a native of Media, whence its Latin name 

 Medica. It was well known and highly esteemed 

 by the ancients, uniting in itself many valuable quali- 

 ties, as early fitness for use, great productiveness 

 and duration,! and juices the most nutritious and 

 acceptable to cattle. In the south of Europe it still 

 maintains this high reputation, and in our southern 

 climates would entirely deserve it ; but of its suc- 

 cess here we have doubts, founded on the fact that 

 all attempts made to introduce it, and coming with- 

 in our own observation, have failed. Two condi- 

 tions are, however, indispensable to its prosperity 

 in any climate, and these are a rich soil and careful 

 cultivation. In wet, or stony, or stiff ground, it does 

 not thrive. Its long tap-root must plunge into the 

 earth without obstruction, otherwise the plant suf- 

 fers and dies prematurely. 2d. Sainfoin. This 



* Of the grasses here named, sainfoin is found not to succeed 

 in the United States. We have not the chalky soil in which it 

 thrives best, and our winters are considered too severe for it ; 

 and the ray or rye-grass is not well adapted to our hot summers. 

 Neither seem to be congenial to our soil and climate. J. B. 



t " Tante dos est ejus ut eum uno situ tricenis annis duret 

 medica." Plin., Nat. Hist. Such are the valuable properties of 

 lucerne, that it will flourish for thirty years onlhe same spot. 



