146 THE LUCERNE CROP. 



the greatest care, are sure to increase, and the value 

 of the crop to diminish in equal ratio, so that gene- 

 rally about the seventh or eighth year it ceases to 

 Tbe sufficiently productive, and is ploughed up to make 

 way for some other crop. To take the full advantage of 

 the crop it should be cut green, and carried at once to the 

 vards or stables for the cattle or horses. If fed off by 

 sheep or cattle, care should be taken not to feed it too 

 close, as if the crown of the root is injured, the plant gene- 

 rally dies off during the next winter. In cutting it for 

 soiling purposes, it is best to divide the daily supply, and 

 cut it morning and evening as may be required, spreading 

 it out as soon as cut. If cut all at once and left in 

 a heap, it is apt, owing to its succulent nature, to heat 

 and become less palatable to the cattle. Indeed, lucerne 

 is, under any circumstances, apt to slightly purge cattle 

 when first given to them; therefore it should be given 

 sparingly, and increased as they become used to it; if 

 allowed free access to it, they eat it with avidity, and are 

 very liable to get " hoven" from it. These two casualties 

 may, however, always be prevented by limiting the quan- 

 tity, and by not allowing them to eat it until three or four 

 hours after it has been cut. Lucerne is sometimes, but 

 very rarely, made into hay, when the same precautions 

 as to cutting and making should be taken as were recom- 

 mended for the clover crop. Owing to the large propor- 

 tion of moisture it contains it requires great care in stack- 

 ing, and even where well got up, its bulk is smaller and 

 its quality inferior to that made from clover, sainfoin, or 

 vetches. It is very rarely grown for seed in this country. 

 When a seed crop is desired, it should be taken at the 

 end, immediately before the land is ploughed up again, 

 as after the plants have once seeded, they never resume 

 their former productiveness. 



The gross produce per acre of green food when the 



