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Select Plants for Industrial Culture and 



inundations so well, enduring however a rougher clime. Lucerne 

 keeps green and fresh in the hottest season of the year, even in dry 

 and comparatively barren ground and on coast-sands, but develops 

 itself for field-culture with the greatest vigor on river-banks or 

 when subjected to a judicious system of irrigation, particularly in 

 soil rich in lime. Its deeply penetrating roots render the plant 

 particularly fit for fixing embankments or hindering the washing 

 away of soil subject to occasional inundations. Bonnet records a 

 root 66 feet long. The greatest yield is from the second to the 

 sixth year. One of the most valuable of green fodders, but less 

 suited for hay, as the leaves so readily drop off [Dr. Stebler]. 

 Will succeed also in warm climes. The Hoyal Commission for 

 Water- Supply in New South Wales has ascertained, that ten acres 

 of Lucerne, raised by irrigation for ensilage, would provide for the 

 herd of 2,000 acres pasture-land during a season of drought. The 

 Peruvian variety (Alfalfa) resists drought and frost better than 

 the original European Lucerne. Dr. Curl, of New Zealand, allo\vs 

 cattle to feed upon Alfalfa for two weeks, then takes them off and 

 puts sheep on for two weeks, to eat the Alfalfa close to the ground ; 

 he then removes them and permits the Alfalfa to grow for a month, 

 when he repeats the process. He allows five large cattle or twenty 

 sheep to the acre. Lucerne is also an important honey-plant for 

 bees. Much iron in the soil or stagnant-water is detrimental to 

 lucerne-culture, while friable warm soil much promotes its growth. 

 Langethal records instances of lucerne having yielded on the same 

 field under favorable circumstances for fifteen years four or five 

 cuts annually. The chemical analysis of the fresh herb, collected 

 very early in spring, gave the following results : Starch 1'5, gam 

 2*1, unfermentable sugar 3, albumen 2*3, insoluble proteins 2'3, 

 ash 2*3 per cent. [F. v. Mueller and L. Hummel]. For sandy 

 tracts a yellow variety (M. media, Persoon) deserves preference. 

 To show how enormously plants are affected in their mineral 

 constituents by difference of soil, Lace has analysed the ashes of 

 lucerne (a) from granitic soil, (b) chalky soil with flints, (c) clayey 

 with chalk, (d) very chalky, and found 



