CHAP. X. LUCERNE AS A SOILING CROP. 165 



In soiling from permanent pasture we must also notice a difference 

 which may exist in its effects on the production of beef and butter 

 respectively. Every dairy farmer knows the bad influence on the latter 

 of certain noxious weeds, and when the grass is mown all these are eaten 

 by the cows which they would refuse while growing in the field. 



All this leads us up to the consideration of a very important point, 

 viz. : Whether, if soiling is to be done, a permanent pasture is the best 

 for the purpose. We think there is a forage plant, now coming rapidly 

 to the front which is infinitely superior from every point of view. We 

 refer to lucerne, one of Nature's very best gifts to the cultivator of the 

 soil, and one which has been too long neglected. It has been known for 

 many years to a very few and was grown in this country, to a small 

 extent, half a century ago, but rarely in larger patches than an acre or 

 two. Yet no farmer who tried it on anything like suitable soil ever 

 gave it up, and it is simply marvellous to any one unacquainted with 

 the extraordinary reluctance of British farmers to leave the beaten 

 track, that its many and great merits should have remained so long in 

 the background. It is essentially a soiling plant and would probably 

 distance any rival as material for silage, but for that to those who have 

 proved its virtues it would be considered too good. Not that it would 

 really be so, because the better the material used the better will be the 

 silage, but the common idea is that silage is silage and of equal value of 

 whatever it may be composed. 



A good thing must in the nature of things be recognised in time, 

 however long its appreciation may be in coming, and at last we are glad 

 to see a decided increase in the acreage under lucerne in Great Britain. 

 It is still only very small in comparison with the area devoted to clover 

 and rotation grasses as will be seen from the following figures : Of 

 these last in 1907 there were 4,491,028 acres under cultivation, showing 

 an increase of 50,280 acres over 1906. Of lucerne there were only 

 63,796 acres in 1907, but the increase on 1906 was 8,062 acres, or 14'5 

 per cent., while the increase in clover and rotation grasses was only 1*1 

 per cent. This is satisfactory so far as it goes, and it is a good sign that 

 the cultivation of the plant is spreading in certain districts with .great 

 rapidity, thus showing that it grows in favour from the results of ocular 

 demonstration. In certain parts of Essex the farmers are planting great 

 breadths every year, and a very shrewd farmer on Eomney Marsh, in 

 Kent, having tried it, with some caution at first, is now using it 

 extensively and is finding many imitators. 



But we are speaking of soiling, and we must now see what peculiar 

 advantages it possesses for that purpose. First then, it will produce 

 three good crops in the year, the first being ready by the end of May. 

 It is undoubtedly a rich and nourishing food and perfectly safe. It 

 never produces " scour " like tares and many other green crops. Indeed, 

 given to lambs folding on young tares it is a splendid corrective and 

 astringent for counteracting the well-known deficiencies of that watery 

 food. Horses fed with it will work hard all summer and get fat without 

 oats, and last but not least, it is a capital diet for dairy cows producing 



