VOL.. XVII. NO. 19. 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL 



141 



absorbed by the body, was only distinguishable 

 from the termination which follows in the footsteps 

 of its predecessor, by a delicate, white projection, 

 appearing as the representative of its absent con- 

 stituent, the snout. 



Unhappily the commonwealth is not a citizen of 

 the county of Worcester. Although worthy of be- 

 ing admitted to tlie freedom of our community, she 

 cannot at present claim a premium for her children. 

 It is recommended that the sum of two dollars, 

 which, if possible, would have been awarded to her, 

 should be presented to Mr Mirick M. Chaffin, the 

 attendant of her hogs, by whose care tliey have 

 been made to resemble elephants in miniature, with 

 their trunks packed up. 



The race recently introduced, whereby hangs no 

 temperance tale, the Dcdham breed, producing by 

 its bite the dreadful horror of cold water, was en- 

 tirely invisible. Lithographic representations rode 

 on the rails of the pens. Whether the striped pig 

 would have been examined had he been present, it 

 is unnecessary to determine, as no opportunity was 

 offered to consider its form or spirit 



One of the most lively writers of American 

 sketches, in whose hands charcoal marks white, 

 exclaims, " I wish I was a pig ; there's some sense 

 in being a pig that's fat; pigs are decent behaved 

 people and good citizens, though they have no 

 votes." No considerate spectator of the calm con- 

 tent and philosophical repose of the inmates of the 

 pens could refuse to respond with heartfelt sincer- 

 ity to such reasonable wish and opinions. Pigs do 

 not buy lands, nor build houses, nor pay taxes, nor 

 have bills left with an attorney for collection, nor 

 subject tliemselves to the caprice of any court ex- 

 cept that of the judges of swine. They are not 

 abused for owning bank shares, nor obliged to bor- 

 row money to stipport those who denounce them. 

 They never burst their boilers, nor have messen- 

 gers sent under an assignment process to confiscate 

 their estates to defray the costs of settling them. 

 Pigs are above being politicians. No hog of re- 

 spectability was ever heard to express an opinion 

 on the sub-treasury system, or to commit himself in 

 relation to the vexed question of the license laws. 

 Nor has it ever been known, that a pig has reserved 

 the aspiration for happiness already quoted, by 

 praying that he might be a man. There is no com- 

 parison between pigdom and manhood. 



All which, in behalf of the pigs, and of the ab- 

 sent counsellor, and present senators, representa- 

 tives, justices, officers, and soldiers of the commit- 

 tee, is respectfully submitted. 



WILLIAM LINCOLN, Chairman. 



LUCERNE AND SAINTFOIN. 



BY MR TOWERS. 



Lucerne is die plant of plants ! yet its merits, 

 though undeniable, are but imperfectly understood. 

 It is a native of England, belongs to the seven- 

 teenth class, fourth order of Linnaeus, (Diadclphia 

 decandria) and the natural order Leguminosre. It is 

 a member of the genus or family Medkaso, medick, 

 distinouished by having ten stamens, one of them 

 distinct from the other nine. One seed vessel, a 

 legume or pod, spirally twisted or sickle-shaped, 

 (papilionaceov3.) One plant (M. Saliva) grows to 

 the height of two feet or more ; but the stems are 

 upright and firm, the foliage ternate, of a rich lively 

 green, the leaflets saw-cut at their edges, the flow- 

 ers are produced during June or July, in spikes, 

 and are of a full violet blue. I extract the follow- 



ing from " Loudon's Encyclopedia of Gardening," 

 partly to prove the great antiquity of the culture, 

 but particularly to show the fallacy of the conclu- 

 ding observations, and thereby evince the worth of 

 the plant. 



" It is highly extolled by Roman writers ; it is 

 also of unknown antiquity in old Spain, Italy, and 

 the south of France ; is much grown in Persia and 

 Peru, and mown in both countries all the year 

 round. It is mentioned by Hart'ib, Blythe, and 

 other early writers, and was tried by Lisle, but it 

 excited little attention till after tlie publication of 

 Ilarte's essays in 1757." 



" But though it has been so much extolled, it 

 has yet found no great reception in this country. 

 If any good reason can be given for this, it is that 

 lucerne is a loss hardy plant than red clover, re- 

 quires three or four years before it comes to its full 

 growth, and is for these and other reasons ill adapt- 

 ed to enter into general rotation." 



I have grown lucerne during four or five years, 

 and previously I had witnessed its great success 

 and extensive culture in the Isle of Thanet, Kent ; 

 there it is a sine qua non, because it affects chalky 

 districts, and sends down its wiry elongated roots 

 deep into the interstices of the chalk. It succeeds 

 perfectly in sound loams, and therein appears to 

 me to require little manure. Hardy il is — and as 

 to tardiness, though the plant may acquire strength, 

 and improve during four years, the fact is beyond 

 controversy, that if sown in drills about the third 

 week of March, and the spaces between the rows 

 (from nine to twelve inches) kept clean by the hoe 

 for the first three or four months, the young plants, 

 if favored by a mild spring and genial showers, 

 will advancfe with so much vigor and rapidity, that 

 a first cutting over with the scythe can be made in 

 June or July, and three other cuttings will follow in 

 pretty regular succession, between the lattef period 

 and the first of November. 



Seasons will of course vary ; soils and other 

 auxiliaries may be more or less favorable ; but that 

 which I have stated has occurred ; it is the result 

 of my own experience and practice. I have during 

 five seasons witnessed the abundance of green 

 food, which is produced by a plot of young plants, 

 the supply being ample for a cow, even within four 

 months after the sowing of the seed. I am thus 

 authorized to refute, upon the evidence of facts, 

 the charges contained in the concluding paragraph 

 of the quotation. In cutting for a cow it will al- 

 ways be advisable to take the plant when it is ten- 

 der and juicy, and such it will be when about a 

 foot high. I have thus cut my plot over six times 

 after the first year, but they who leave the plants 

 to grow two feet high will find the stems rigid, 

 fibrous, and less juicy ; and that wliat they gain in 

 bulk will be lost in time and quality. 



As to the trouble in managing an established 

 crop, it is really nothing. Though I allow it is 

 good to hoe twice during the summer, as the plot 

 is mown, piece by piece, yet one general fork-dig- 

 ging at that period of early spring, when the plants 

 exhibit the first symptom of growth, so as to remove 

 every weed and loosen the surface of the soil, will 

 be amply sufficient to secure the safety and full 

 developement of the herb. Upon the whole, lu- 

 cerne is a plant of the utmost value ; for if .the 

 seed be uood, the ground rich and in heart, and 

 rendered deep in the first instance by a thorough 

 trenching, the young plants start into lively growth, 

 attain strength in the shortest possible time, and 

 yield a bulk of luxuriant herbage that cannot be 



surpassed. If the plant recjuire four years to attain 

 its maximum of power, it is still a giant even from 

 its infancy, advancing from strength to strength. 



Well might the writer of a recent agricultural 

 report (of Norfolk if I mistake not) recently ex- 

 claim, " What a plant lucerne !" I re-echo this 

 introductory " note of admiration," and vyill unhes- 

 itatingly assert, that if abundance, jiermanent and 

 unfailing, particularly in shallow soils upon chalk- 

 rock, be the object of the farmer, he will attain it 

 by the cultivation of lucerne. The rotation must 

 be improved by it, as in point of product it will 

 yield double the bulk of grass from an old sedgy 

 meadow. 



The soil which is most favorably to the perfect 

 growth of lucerne is worthy of consideration. 

 Chalk is what it affects, and therefore we find it 

 most generally cultivated in Kent, those parts of 

 the southern coast wherein the sub-soil is a chalk- 

 rock. I5ut my fine plot grows in a rich, deep, and 

 rather sandy loam ; the subsoil is indeed chalky or 

 marly, but at a considerable depth. It was pre- 

 pared by taking off" the turf, trenching to the ex- 

 tent of three spits, and placing the turfs, their 

 grassy surface downward, at the bottom of each 

 trench. Upon these reversed turfs a sprinkling of 

 common salt was given, and the earth was returned 

 into the trench, with the precaution to keep the 

 heavier and inferior soil belor>' the fine black earth 

 of the surface. Due preparalion affords a rich and 

 permanent pasture for the wandering roots ; and 

 my piece of hardly one-third of an acre, has been 

 so undeviatingly productive, with little subsequent 

 manuring, that in a showery season, wo have found 

 in cutting over the end where we began ready for 

 the scythe again before the mowing was completed. 

 Lucerne is known to produce much milk, perhaps 

 more than any other of the artificial grasses [Leg- 

 uminosa: ;) but some complain that it communicates 

 an austere or bitter flavor. I doubt the fact ; but 

 would always recommend that it be given quite 

 fresh to a cow, particularly at an early period after 

 calving. If the required quantity be cut over night, 

 it will be fit for the stall by ten o'clock of the fol- 

 lowing morning ; and again, the afternoon meal 

 should be exposed to the sun for two or three 

 hours before it is used. 



A well prepared field, if kept clean by the fork- 

 ing, will remain productive for more than ten years ; 

 but as a change of crop always promotes abun- 

 dance, it would be advisable to prepare a succes- 

 sional plot every six years. 



The grass and weeds raised by the fork, and 

 raked up with the small quantity of earth, adhering 

 to the roots, if salted and sprinkled with quicklime 

 and placed in a heap, will form a most excellent 

 manure for the lucerne. The cuttings Iwe are 

 usually over by the end of October ; the herb then 

 becomes, as it were, torpid, and whatever manure 

 is applied should be given as a top-dressing during 

 the winter's state of repose. The surface must not 

 be disturbed at that season, nor till the herb begins 

 to grow, then, as I have before said, the fork-dig- 

 ging will effect all that is absolutely indispensable; 

 it will turn in the remaining manure, remove the 

 encroaching weeds, and open the soil, burying a 

 fresh surface into contact with the advancing root- 

 lets. The experience of one or two seasons, un- 

 der conmionly favorable auspices, will veryify all 

 that I have asserted. 



Somewhat resembling lucerne in character and 

 habits is the French grass or Saintfoin ( Hedysarum 

 Onohrychis,) a lovely flowering plant, rich in her- 



