20O 



LUCERNE. 



2. The soils that suit lucerne, are all those that 

 are at once dry and rich. If they possess these 

 two criteria, there is no fear but they will produce 

 large crops of lucerne. A friable deep sandy loam 

 on a chalk or white dry marley bottom, is excellent 

 for it. Deep putrid sands, warp on a dry basis, 

 good sandy loam on chalk, dry marie or gravel, all 

 do well ; and, in a word, all soils that are good 

 enough for wheat, and dry enough for turnips to 

 be fed on the land, do well for lucerne. If defi- 

 cient in fertility, they may be made up by manur- 

 ing, but I never yet met with any land too rich for 



it. 



. 



3. The best preparation for this, as for all oth 

 grasses, is two successive crops of turnip or cab- 

 bage, both fed on the land, and the last before the 

 sharp frosts are over. This management frees 

 from all weeds better than any other, and at the 

 same time greatly enriches. Upon land previously 

 clean, one of these crops may do well enough ; 

 but let not a farmer ever venture lucerne upon land 

 that by some method, whatever it may be, is not 

 rendered quite clean. 



4. In regard to the mode of sowing, the great- 

 est success by far that has been known is, by the 

 broad-cast method, which is nearly universal 

 among the best lucerne fanners, even among men 

 vho admire and practice the drill husbandry in 

 many other articles. But as they mostly (not all) 

 depend on severe harrowing, for keeping their 

 crops clean, which is a troublesome and expensive 



operation, 





