44 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



August 31, 1827. 



LUCERNE. 



(Continued from paje 36.) 



After having comploteii the extracts from the 

 Abbe Rozier on Lucerne, we met with an Eng- 

 lish work, whicli is still more full on the same 

 subject; and as it would bo well to put our read- 

 ers in possession of so many facts, and of such a 

 variety of authoiity, as wholly to satisfy their 

 minds of the great value of this grass, uc shall 

 insert copious extracts from this Englisli work, 

 " the Complete Farmer," printed 1793. 



Columella, an ancient writer, calls Lucer.ic the 

 choicest of all fodder, because it will last ton 

 years, and will bear being cut down four, ad 

 sometimes si.x times a year ; it enriches the land 

 in which it grows, fattens the cattle fed with it, 

 and is a remedy for sick cattle. Yet notwith- 

 standing it was so much esteemed by the ancients, 

 and hath been cultivated to great advantage in 

 France and Switzerland, for many years, it has 

 not yet found so good a reception in England as 

 it justly deserves ; [this was written 34 years ago] 

 nor is it cultivated here in any considerable quan- 

 tity, though it will succeed as well in this country, 

 as in either of the last mentioned, being extremely 

 hardy, and resisting the severest cold of our cli- 

 mate. [This is as true in Massachusetts : it is 

 hardier than Clover.] Mr. Roquo lays i~ down as 

 a ma.'tim from his omn practice, that Lucerne will 

 grow on any soil, provided it be not too wet, to 

 rot the roots. The strongest land is hovvever to 

 be preferred, and the deeper the soil, the better 

 will be the crop. The land should be prepared 

 in the same manner as for barley, and brought to 

 a fine tilth. The Lucerne should be sown broad- 

 cast, in fine weather, at the rate of fourteen 

 pounds to the acre. If grain is sown with it, it 

 should only be for half a crop, otherwise it will 

 be apt to destroy the Lucerne, especially if the 

 grain should prove ra'ik ; but if no graiu is sown 

 with it, the Lucerne v/ill be better. Lucerne may 

 be sown from the beginning of March,to the end of 

 of May. If you sow grain with it ever so thin, 

 and it should prove luxuriant, it had better be cut 

 green, lost it should hurt the Lucerne. The grain 

 thus cut may be given to cattle green, or if pro- 

 perly dried will make excellent hay. -Lucerne 

 will not grow on newly broken-up land ; it must 

 be tilled a year or two ; potatoes make the best 

 preparation for Lucerne. In Languedoc they sow 

 no grain with it; but they cut over the Lucerne 

 when it is six inches high, so as to keep down 

 weeds and other plants. In Normandy, whose 

 climate resembles that of England, they sow grain 

 with it. When the plants are a year old it will 

 be proper to go over the ground with a large 

 harrow, to root up annual weeds and grass. The 

 harpoNV will not hurt the roots of Lucerne, they 

 being very tough ; this should be done in dry 

 weather, before the Lucerne begins to sprout, and 

 if there are any patches, whore the seed miscar- 

 ried, you can throw in a little seed upon them. 

 The second year, you may run over your Lucerne 

 with a smooth plough, without a coulter, to pre- 

 vent the roots being too much hurt, and leave it 

 rough a few days, then harrow it smooth. One 

 not used to Lucerne would be apt to think that 

 ploughing would ruin it, but experience shows the 

 contrary. In making into hay, it should be cut as 

 80on as the bloom appears ; it must not be spread 

 like other gross, but lie in the swarth, like Clover, 

 and turned in the same manner, or the leaves. 



which are most nutritive, will fall off. If suffered ; 

 to stand too long before mowing, the stalks be- 1 

 come too hard for cattle, and it loses much of its ( 

 goodness. The hay is good for all sorts of cattle, j 

 and when horses are fed with it, they should not 

 have their full allowance of corn ; the Lucerne ' 

 answers, in a great measure, the purpose of both ) 

 hay and grain. It is also the most profitable fodder 

 to feed horses with in summer by mowing, and 

 giving it to them green. If the land is good, the , 

 produce is incredible. Mr. Roque says he has ! 

 seen it mowed five times in a season, yielding, at 

 the five mowings, eight loads of hay per acre. 



As the duration of Lucerne has been a question 

 of dispute, this author quotes the au.tiiority of an 

 able cultivator. " As to its duration, it will last 

 as long- as the ground is kept clean. I saw some 

 at Mr. Middleman's at Grantham, in his garden,] 

 which was forty years old, and it was very fine." j 

 The Practical Cultivator says " It ought not to be 

 cut except when it is in blossom, and tliat is but 

 three times a year, but after mowing the third 

 crop, instead of cutting a fourth, you may feed it, , 

 but v/hen the frosts come you must take your cat- j 

 tie off, because they would bruise the young stalks. '■ 

 If it is rank in September, it is dangerous for j 

 cows, it being too feeding [hearty] ; but turn hor- 1 

 ses and sheep upon it. As there is no gr.ass, ' 

 wliich has come to our knowledge, which gives 

 t!ie cows so much milk, you may let them graze 

 in the afternoon when the dew is off, about one 

 hour ; wlien made hay it is likewise the best for j 

 milk ; wherever it is much cultivated they prefer i 

 it to all other kinds of hay. When I was in Mo- 1 

 nosque, a city in Provence, the carriers fed their ! 

 horses upon it, preferably to any other, without i 

 corn ; and they were fat and in fine order. It is ! 

 acknowledged to be the most feeding [hearty ?] ' 

 pasture, cither green or in hay. I trust not barely 

 to report, but have found it so myself. Many arc 

 apt to condemn it, but it is for want of knowledge. 

 It has been introduced for a long number of year.s, ' 

 but so little noticed that 21 years ago, [that is in 

 1772,] there were not 200 weight of Lucerne 

 seeds to be sold among all the Seedsmen in Lon- ; 

 don, and I had much ado to re-introduce it ; but : 

 now, [in 1793,] there is a prodigious consumption 

 of it." 1 



[Note. The fate of this grass has been the 

 same in the United States. More than twenty 

 years ago, some seeds were imported and sue- 1 

 ceeded admirably, yet it is only within a few sea- ' 

 sons that wo have had any for sale ; probably the 

 want of regular Seedsmeu, and the trouble of im- 

 porting from France, were among the causes of 

 its slow progress in the United States.] 



" Mr. Rcadle, a farmer in Kent, has fourteen 

 acres of it, for which he had a premium. When 

 I called upon hirn in May last, he had mowed his 

 Lucerne, and sold it on the spot for three guineas 

 a load. Those that bought this hay must be well 

 acquainted with its goodness to fetch it from the 

 spot, though they lived ten or twelve miles dis- 

 tant. Horses will work with it green, as well as 

 with hay and corn ; they do not sweat with it as 

 they do with other green fodder. It is objected, 

 that it is difficult to make ; it is no more so than 

 Clover. All hay is difficult to make in wet 

 weather, but if the weather is bad, put it up in 

 ricks when dry, and between every layer strow a 

 *Tliis difficulty will in future be obviated. Fresh 

 Lucerne seed can always be purchased at the of- 

 fice of the New England Farmer. 



little salt, and that will recover all the damage 

 the rain may have done." 



Another writer says, "Lucerne should be cur 

 when the stalks are about fifteen or sixteen inch 

 es high, on an average ; he cut it in three years. 

 sixteen times, or more than five times a year; by 

 the 9th of April, one year, some of tlic stslks were 

 seventeen inches high, when no field in the neigh 

 borhood had grass more than four inches high. 

 The same Lucerne was cut twice before any hay 

 making began in its neighborhood." 



M. Miller, who appears to have cultivated Lu- 

 cerne with great success, says, that you may cul 

 it in the month of August, the first year, or year 

 of sowing, and feed it afterwards with sheep. If. 

 will bear three cuttings and two feedings in a 

 season. Of its capability of resisting cold he 

 gives the following proof: — In the vcri/ cold win- 

 ter of 1738-9, he had some roots of Lucerne dug 

 up and laid upon the surface from October to 

 March, when he planted tliein, and they shot oul 

 vigorously soon after ; wet however will destroy 

 the roots. Mr. Miller says, that the most profit- 

 able mode of consuming Lucerne, is to cut and 

 give it as green fodder. This is the celebrated 

 Philip Miller, author of the Gardener's Diet.: the 

 most respectable authority that could be quoted. 

 Mr. Chateauvieux of Switzerland, by planting 

 Lucerne in rows obtained at the rate of seven 

 tons and two-tliirds of hay from an acre, in five 

 crops in one season. Switzerland is a cold coun- 

 try. Mr. Chateauvieu.x found, that when the 

 thermometer fell to zero the Lucerne did not suf- 

 fer. Mr. John Wynn Baker, of 'Ireland, appear.s 

 to have been very successful in the culture of Lu- 

 cerne. Ho says, that in order to ascertain how 

 far Lucerne may bo worth the farmer's attention, 

 he made an experiment with a horse, to see how- 

 much Lucerne he would eat, so as to loarn how 

 many horses an acre of Lucerne would support 

 The horse he chose was a large one, and had 

 been ploughing all day without food, and ho eat 

 forty-nine pounds of Lucerne in the course of the 

 night. Lucerne he says at four cuttings will yield 

 35840 pounds to an acre, [weighed green, n(' 

 doubt] This is a low calculation ; an acre there 

 fore will maintain at the rate of 49 pounds pei 

 day to each, 5 horses for 20 weeks. No natural 

 pasture can do anything like this; add to this, the 

 profit of making dung all summer. 



Mr. Duhamel, the famous naturalist, gives his 

 testimony also in favor of Lucerne ; he had forty 

 tons of Lucerne (green) upon an English acre, 

 which he computes at ten ions of hay. By this 

 remark it would seem that he cut it while in blos- 

 som, for Lucerne if cut before it flowers, loses 80 

 per cent, and therefore his 40 tons would only 

 have produced eight of cured hay. We could 

 much extend these e.xtracts, but we have said 

 enough to induce those, who are convinced as we 

 are by experiment, that it is suited to our climate, 

 to try it extensively. 



Hemp — The superiority of Russian over 

 American liemp, is attributed to the process of 

 rotting; the former being rotted by water, and the 

 latter by dew. A lot of hemp, rotted in running 

 water, in Ohio, has been considered by the rope 

 makers in New York, equal in all respects to the 

 Russian. Flax ia uniformly, we believe, rotted in 

 this country by water, and we see no reason why 

 hemp could not be with the same facility. 



[Prov. Aid.] 



