913 CULTIVATION OF PLANTS. 



practice of fifteen years. The reader will find it under the 

 article "hay-making." 



The saving of clover seed is frequently attended with con- 

 siderable labour and difficulty. It is necessary to take off the 

 first growth of clover either by feeding or with the scythe, and 

 to depend for seeds upon those heads which are produced in 

 the second crop in autumn. The growth reserved for seed, 

 after the first cutting, which should, in this case, be done 

 earlier than usual, must be suffered to remain until the husks 

 become perfectly brown, when it is cut and harvested in the 

 usual manner, leaving it on the field till it is very crisp, that 

 the seeds may become more fully hardened. It may then be 

 laid away dry, until required to be sent to the clover-mill. 

 When a crop of clover-seed is to be raised, it should be from 

 the last crop of the second year, as suffering the crop to ripen 

 injures the roots for a succeeding crop. 



The produce of clover hay on some of our best lands, has 

 been set down at four tons three tons is about the probable 

 average yield of the country to the acre. The produce in seed 

 varies from two and a half to six bushels per acre, when clean- 

 ed. But both depend, in a great measure, on soil, situation, 

 and season. DICKSON, in his "Practical Agriculture," says it 

 bears hard on the fertility of the soil, to let the crop fully 

 ripen; while others think it exhausts the soil but little. 



All the varieties of clover are exposed to attacks from in- 

 sects, and liable to various diseases among them the blight or 

 mildew. But the crop rarely suffers much from this source. 

 A top dressing of lime and ashes is said to be fatal to the slugs. 



II. LUCERN. 



THIS plant, Medicago saliva, has been cultivated in Spain, 

 Italy, the south of France, and on all the northern shores of the 

 Mediterranean, time out of mind, as well as in the countries of 

 the east. It was familiar to the Greeks and Romans, from 

 whom we derive very minute accounts of its nature, proper- 

 ties and culture. Lucern is a deep rooting perennial plant, 

 sending up numerous small and tall clover-like shoots, with 

 blue or violet spikes of flowers. In Persia and in Lima it is 

 grown extensively, and in both countries it is mowed all the 

 year round. "COLUMELLA," a Roman writer, a few of whose 

 works on agriculture have fortunately been preserved, "esti- 

 mated lucern as the choicest of all fodder, because it lasted 



