THE MELILOT CROP. 



The organic analyses testify to the high value of the 

 food materials contained both in the grain and in the 

 straw, while the determination of the mineral constituents 

 show that the proportion of lime and magnesia are 

 smaller than those contained by the allied cultivated 

 plants, and confirm the observation of M. Vilmorin, that 

 this genus is suitable for cultivation on soils containing 

 only small quantities of lime. 



THE MELILOT. 



The MELILOT belongs to the same order as the lentil, and 

 is still less commonly met in cultivation as a field crop, 

 either in this country or abroad. It is frequently, how- 

 ever, grown as a mixture in other forage crops, to which, 

 when cut, and made into hay especially, it gives a fine and 

 agreeable aroma, resembling very much that given by the 

 Anthoxanthumodoratum, or "sweet-scented vernal grass," 

 in our meadow hay. It has been mentioned by some of 

 the early authors, and recommended for cultivation. Ray, 

 in his History of Plants, published in 1688, says that 

 the yellow melilot was then sometimes sown for the food 

 of kine and horses ; but succeeding writers have generally 

 included it rather among the weeds than the cultivated 

 plants of agriculture. 



The melilot forms a distinct genus MELILOTUS of 

 which the following species are met with in cultivation for 

 forage purposes : 



Melilotus officinalis Common Melilot is an annual 

 plant, growing from 2 to 3 feet high, with yellow flowers, 

 disposed in long, loose, one-sided clusters or racemes, 

 which are succeeded by pendulous, elliptical pods, hairy 

 and wrinkled. It grows naturally in dry pastures and 

 waste places, and flowers in July, when it dies down 



