HOW TO GROW GOOD CLOVER. 129 



good adjunct to rye-grasses and common clovers, 

 especially on light soils; but on good strong land 

 which will bear a full crop of broad-leaved clover it 

 would be mostly smothered out, and, if not, as we 

 think it is properly held to be less nutritious than 

 clover, its use is not recommended where first-rate 

 clover crops can be grown. 



We have seen this trefoil grown with sainfoin to 

 great advantage, as it yields a tolerable crop for the 

 first two years, and then declines, just as the sainfoin 

 has got possession of the soil. 



2. Medicago sativa — Lucerne — is a perfectly per- 

 ennial plant, which, though not so much grown 

 in England as it deserves, yet scarcely needs descrip- 

 tion ; however, its purple flowers and smooth twisted 

 seed-pods serve to distinguish it from the rest of the 

 genus. We have grown this plant upwards of a foot 

 high by the 1st of May, and taken no less than three 

 cuttings of a good succulent herbage in one season. 

 These qualities point out lucerne as an excellent 

 green-food plant, for which purpose we should always, 

 where practicable, recommend that at least a patch 

 should be grown near the stable, as there is reason to 

 believe that its alterative effects upon the horses are 

 of a most salutary kind. It should be cultivated in 

 drills of from 15 to 18 inches apart ; and, if properly 

 weeded and not let get too old before cutting, it will 

 last for many years with an occasional dressing of 

 manure. 



We once had a patch one half of which was pur- 

 posely neglected by way of comparison with the other 

 half, which was well cared for ; that portion left to 

 itself yielded but poor crops, and almost disappeared 

 at the end of four years, whilst the other portion 



