222 CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. 



ticular cases. All agree in extolling it as food for cows, 

 whether in a green or dried state ; and it is said to be 

 much superior to clover, both in increasing the milk and 

 butter, and in improving their flavor. In its green state, 

 care is necessary not to feed too much at a time, especially 

 when moist, as cattle may become hoven or blown with 

 it. It is a good precaution to cut it the day before it is 

 used, and to let it wilt in the swath. When made into 

 hay, lucerne should never be spread from the swath, but 

 managed as directed for clover. It may be housed before 

 perfectly dry, if it is alternated in the mow with layers 

 of straw, which imbibe the superabundant juices, and 

 thereby become grateful and nutritious to the farm-stock, 

 when fed with the lucerne. 



Soiling is a term applied to the practice of cutting her- 

 bage crops green, for feeding or fattening live stock. On 

 all farms under correct management, a part of this crop is 

 cut green for the working horses, often for milch cows, even 

 when at pasture ; and in some instances, both for growing 

 and fattening cattle. On small farms, this crop is of immense 

 advantage, as affording a ready substitute for pasture. 



The produce of lucerne, cut three times in a season, 

 has been stated from three to five, and even eight tons 

 per acre. In soiling, one acre is sufficient for five or six 

 cows during the soiling season.* 



* In the first volume of the Transactions of the Society for the Pro- 

 motion of Agriculture, Arts, and Manufactures, we find a "detailed state- 

 ment of a series of experiments made by the late Chancellor Livings- 

 ton, in 1791 to 1794, in cultivating lucerne, most of w^hich proved 

 unsuccessful. He sowed it mixed with clover-seeds, and by itself, on 

 a variety of soils, at different seasons, and with oats, wheat, buck- 

 wheat, barley, and turnips. These experiments warrant the following 

 conclusions : — That the seeds should be sown on a dry, rich, deep soil, 

 in May, when the earth is sufticiently warm to excite a quick germina- 

 tion and growth ; that from 16 to 20 lbs. of seed should be sown on 

 an acre, and the ground harrowed and rolled ; that " it is full as hardy 

 as clover," and "better braves the biting frosts of spring, and keen 

 autumnal blasts, than clover, or any cultivated grass of this climate ;" 

 and that the profits of an acre may be estimated from lp20 to $30 per 

 annum. The following is Chancellor Livingston's account of the ex- 

 pense and produce of the third year — this experiment being made on 

 the fourth of an acre. 



"1st April — manured with ten loads of black earth from a swamp, 

 or at the rate of 40 loads to the acre. 



