AND RURAI, ECONOMIST. 19 



very much facilitated by a top dressing of gypsum lime or 

 ashes. 



Lnccrnc, although affording much more green food, con- 

 tains less nutriment in a single crop than red clover. It 

 must, however, he borne in mind, that it grows much quicker 

 than clover, and will bear cutting twice as often. In the 

 soiling system, an acre of lucerne will keep four cattle or 

 horses from the LSth May to the first of October. I cut a 

 piece about the 15th ox May, and again about the 20th of 

 June, to feed green, and then ploughed {he ground, and 

 cropped it with ruta baga, which yielded sixteen tons to the 

 acre of roots, as fine as I ever Law. Mr. Fowell (see 

 Young's Norfolk, p. 345) derived a clear profit of thirteen 

 pounds seventeen shillings and four-pence per acre from his 

 lucerne, fed green to working horses. This is almost equal 

 to sixty dollars the acre. An idea has prevailed that it will 

 not thrive in this latitude, (42-3, ) but the experiments o^ the 

 late chancellor Livmgston, and of Le Roy de Chaumont, 

 prove otherwise. I sowed seed in 1S21, at the rate of six 

 pounds the acre, with barley. It has stood the w^inters well, 

 much better than clover ; and has been in a state of progres- 

 sive improvement. Drought has not affected it. The plants 

 are very tender the first year ; and require either a very 

 clean tilth, or to be kept free from weeds and grass with a 

 hoe the first year. It should have a deep loam, as it sends 

 down tap roois five or six feet ; and it is equally necessary 

 that the ground should not be wet. It may be sown either 

 in drills or broad-cast, with or without grain. Fifteen 

 pounds of seed are required for the acre if drilled, and twenty 

 is not too much if sown broad-cast. To the proprietor of a 

 dairy, an acre or two of lucerne would be valuable, to be fed 

 to his cows in addition to ordinary pasture.^ 



Long-rooted Clover is a nati\e uf Hungary, and I do not 

 think has ever found its way across the Atlantic. The root 

 is biennial, and if sown in the fall, lasts only during the next 

 season. It penetrates to a great depth in the ground, and 

 consequently is but little affected by drought. It therefore 

 requires a deep dry soil. The product of this grass, when 

 compared to others that are allied to it in habit and place 

 of growth, proves greatly superior. It affords twice the 

 weight of grass, and more than double the nutritive matter 



* For farther remarks on the culture of lucern?, see N. £. Farmer, vol. 

 ii. p. 342. 



