380 CULTURE OF FARM CROPS. 



" But we should recollect, with regard to weeds in clover, 

 that they mostly grow rampant while as yet the clover is 

 tender, and all the more so from being smothered, quite 

 enough, and indeed all too much, with the grain crop. 

 They seed, too, the first year ; and if they were enough to 

 smother out the clover when as yet they were few, how 

 will it be when they are legion? as we should say, where 

 there was one weed plant when the clover plant was young, 

 there will be an average of 200 in its second year." 



182. Miscellaneous crops Grown as Forage Plants. 

 Under this head we class a few crops grown for the pur- 

 pose of stock feeding, which do not properly come under 

 the head of any of the preceding divisions. Those we name 

 here are (1.) Vetches; (2.) Lucerne; (3.) Sainfoin. (1.) 

 Vetches. This is a leguminous crop, of which the genus is 

 Vicia, and species very numerous; that cultivated is the 

 Vicia sativa, of which there are two varieties, the summer 

 and winter. The proper place in the course of cropping 

 for vetches is between two white crops; the crop is very 

 frequently taken as a stolen one. By a judicious choice 

 in the time of sowing, a succession of crops may be 

 obtained for forage purposes over a large portion of the 

 year; the quantity of seed required is about two bushels 

 per acre ; it is often mixed with rye, which, growing tall 

 and strong, enables the vetch to keep off the soil and grow 

 more freely. (2.) Lucerne, (medicago sativa). This is a 

 perennial plant, and, when judiciously cultivated, will pro- 

 vide a succession of cuttings of food highly esteemed by 

 cattle. It is best adapted for a warm district and a dry 

 deep soil. The time of sowing is April ; it is usually sown 

 in drills, and if so sown with intervals of 15 to 20 inches 

 between the drills, ten to twelve pounds of seed per acre 

 will suffice. (3.) Sainfoin (onobrycliis sativa), is, like the 

 lucerne and vetch, a leguminous plant, and is cultivated 

 much in the same way as the first named of these two 

 plants, and like that, is highly esteemed by cattle. 



