iL.. xvii. NO. ."ja. 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER 



253 



lows why it i.i necessary that decay or fer- 

 tion should take place in and under the soil 

 r sproutinu; seeds and growing roots, in order 

 ley may obtain from the soil, the salts they 



well-rotted manure contains abundance of 

 salts, ready formed in its mould, then there 

 e less necessity of this action of carbonic 

 But here again it must be remembered, that 

 abundance of salts, ready formed in mould, 

 e produced only at the expense of great loss 

 mentation of real valuable parts. For, 

 ••ondly, the next groat action of the mould of 

 dung is, to produce or form ammonia. This 

 a threefold part : its first action is, to render 

 ould more soluble ; this action it possesses 

 umnn with the fixed alkalies, potash and soda, 

 le alkalies put a large, bnt undefined portion 

 uld, into a state fit to become food for plants, 

 econd action of ammonia is this, it hastens 

 It is the bellows, we may say, kindling the 

 nouldering fire. The third action of amino- 

 s, to combine with any tree acids, such as 

 ar, or even an acid funned of mould itself, 

 pecially with aquafortis, or nitric acid, which 



heat. Little need be said upon this. That a 

 slight degree of heat hastens the sprouting of seeds, 

 yon well know. 'I'hat different manures produce 

 different degrees of heat ; that some are hot, some 

 cold, you well know, and adapt your seed and ma- 

 nure to eaeh other. The degree of heat depends 

 upon the rapidity with which decay occurs. And 

 this is affected by the quantity of ammonia which 

 each manure can afford. The great point to which 

 your attention should be directed, when consider- 

 ing the power of mouldering to produce heat is, 

 that it shall not go so far as to burn up your ma- 

 nure, just as hay will heat and take fire. 

 (To be continued.) 



[From the Louisville Journal] 



LUCERNE. 

 We hope that the following article, written by 

 one of the best and most experienced farmers in 

 the country, will induce many to sow lucerne. On 

 the proper soil there is no doubl of the success. 

 The sandy Ohio bottoms are all admirably suited 

 to it. Let the reader remember that it should be 

 soiled," thit is, cut and fed to the cattle. The 



,vays produced where animal or vegetable I soiling system is an admirable one in the vicinity 



of cities and on all small farms. On such situa- 

 tions no hoof should ever touch a clover field ; 

 even the hogs should be kept up throughout the 

 whole year. 



Lucerne. — Bred a farmer in Scotland, I have, 

 since my sojourn in this country, habitually been 

 casting an eye to the crops raised, their culture, 

 the capabilities of the soil, and the advantages of 

 the climate, and I have been a little surprised that 

 I never met with lucerne. It is true my lot has 

 denied me the opportunities of seeing the best cul- 

 tivated districts in the United States, yet it is lit- 

 tle noticed in your agricultural papers, and exten- 

 sive as has been the rural information in your 

 Journal, I recollect but a solitary instance of its 

 presence. 



I had not been lung here until I was of opinion 

 that this plant or grass is suited to the soil or cli- 

 mate and admirably calculated to fill up the defi- 

 ciency thai frequently occurs in the supply of green 

 food, in the early part of summer, and also in the 

 hot and often severe droughts of July and August. 

 I immediately tested it and found I was right; it 

 was on too small a scale to attract any notice, but 

 sufficient to confirm my opinion. Lucerne is deep 

 rooted and delights in light friable soils, and is 

 not soon injured by drought. As far as I have 

 seen, it is the most early of the soiling grasses, and 

 will eat throe times in one season. It Is the most 

 nourishing food to bo given an animal as well as 

 the most healthful — hence its botanical name, and 

 as it keeps in the ground for a great number of 

 years, by saving the expense of frequent renewals, 

 ought to be more a favorite with the American far- 

 mers. I will state a few facts in support of these 

 views, requesting yon to keep in mind they are 

 from actual observation while in Scotland. 



Mr Guthrie, at Porto Hello, a handsome sea- 

 bathing town on the London road from Edinburg, 

 and two miles from the latter city, had a field of 

 two acres of light sand upon tough blue clay. He 

 burnt brick extensively, excavating the clay to a 

 great depth. The surlace of the unbroken part of 

 the field was in lucerne, and, when it first came 



rs decay. This is a highly important fart, 

 esult of this action, the production of ammo- 

 id aquafortis during the formation of mould, 

 it a kind of saltpetre is thereby produced. 

 is, the ammonia and aquafortis unite, and 

 a salt, with properties similar to saltpetre. 

 ro want the first and second action of ainmo- 

 lO occur, before the third takes place. 

 der now, reader, whether a more more beau- 

 ind effectual way can be devised to hasten 

 :, and render mould more fit for nourishing 

 3, than this which nature has provided. The 

 jnia is volatile. It remains, not like potash 

 loda, where it is put, incapable of moving un- 

 dissolved by water ; but ammonia, like steam, 

 ides every part. It Is as expansive as steam, 

 ed up by the slow mouldering fire of decay, 

 ncirates the whole mass of mould. It does 

 ork there. What is that work ? It has al- 

 I been told. But, if it finds no acid to com- 

 with, it then unites with the mould itself. It 

 sorbed by it. The mould holds il fast ; it 

 s it up against the lime when growing plants 

 need it. Now it is only where the abundance 

 niiionia produced satisfies these actions of has- 

 ig decay, making mould soluble, and filling its 

 I without combining with it, that the forina- 

 of saltpetre takes place. So where animal 

 ers, which are the great source of ammonia, 

 y, there we may expect all these actions to 

 r. 



ow important, then, is that action of nioulder- 

 which produces ammonia. If, reader, you will 

 ct upon the consequences of this action, you 

 at once see, that if the mould is in too small a 

 itity to retain the ammonia, it may escape. If 

 , wasty exposure, you allow your mould to dis- 

 te itself in air, as it certainly will, you not only 

 r the loss of that part of the mould, but you 

 nish at the same time, the chance of keeping 

 aiiimunia which has been formed. No doubt 

 :atlle dung exposed to air, forms more ammo- 

 Ihan it can retain. Hence the necessity and 

 reason of forming composts with this substance, 

 eep what you have got, and catch what you 

 i" must never be lost sight of in manure, 

 ^he third action of mould is, the production of 



so lu.Yuriant was its growth and so effectually did 

 it cover and occupy the soil that this was little re- 

 quired. I know It at thirteen years from planting; 

 by this time the brick-yard had so encroached on 

 the lucerne that there was little more than half an 

 acre left, yet this was suflici>nt for the summer 

 support of. a pair of hard-wrought horses without 

 any other fond ; and that gentleman's servant of- 

 ten wished for the time when he could take his 

 horses from hay and oats, thai they might fatten 

 on lucerne. 



Mr Gardner, (a gardener,) at the ancient village 

 of Restabrig, had a quarter of an acre (which kept 

 his horse) cultivated in the same way as that of 

 his neighbor, Mr Guthrie, and with the same suc- 

 cess. And Mr Henderson, an eminent nursery- 

 man, in the same vicinity, had an acre sown hrond. 

 east which bore luxuriant crops. These, though 

 on small scales ; were so successful as to induce 

 Mr Oliver, of Lochend, well known to the readers 

 of your Journal, to sow several acres. I saw Mr. 

 Oliver's four acres planted, it was then thriving 

 finely and sold at high prices to the cow-keepers 

 and carters of the city. Mr Oliver irrigated a por- 

 tion of his crop with liquid manure procured from 

 a large dairy establishment in his neighborhood, 

 with great success. The mode of culture was to 

 completely pulverize the soil by repeated and deep 

 ploughings, and free it from weeds, and drill it a 

 foot apart, using from eight to ten pounds of seed 

 per acre ; the young plants occupied two to three 

 inches of this surface, leaving nine to ten. The 

 Dutch hoe, nine inches in the face, is pushed along 

 this interval several times while the plants are 

 young, and when grown, after every cutting. If 

 sown in March, it will cut once that season. If 

 sown in the fall, a full crop may be expected next 

 year. Mr Oliver's soil is sandy loam on poor land. 

 For two successive years I kept a hard-working 

 horse solely on lucerne from the middle of May to 

 November, but without knowing from how much 

 land, as other stock were feeding at the same time. 

 After forty-six years experience, I have the convic- 

 tion that it is the best food for milch cows and 

 work horses that has come under my notice, and 

 the reason it is not more cultivated in Scotland, I 

 believe, is, that the spots favorable to its growth 

 are few and far between. The first time I saw lu- 

 cerne growing was in a cottager's garden at Stan- 

 well, in Middlesex, England. On a spot not much 

 larger than a bcd-quilt where he kept his pig. 

 His plants were raised in a nursery and set out in 

 single plants at foot intervals. Transplanting is 

 recommended by some, as the breaking of the top 

 root forces latcrvals more likely to find food espe- 

 cially on thin soils. I sowed in 1834 four rows 

 across a bed fifteen yards wide in the Borthard 

 garden at Shippingport, near Louisville, which was 

 the experiment nienlioiiod in the beginning of this 

 communication and cut a heavy crop in April. It 

 may be still there — I cut it six years. P. 



MR COLMAN'S TOUR. 



Our readers will regret to learn that the publi- 

 cation of the first part of Mr Colman's European 

 'I'our has been delayed by an accident which befel 

 him, and from which he came near losing his life. 

 While visiting a farm near London, early in De- 

 cember, on horseback, he was thrown from his 

 horse and so severely injured as to unfit him for 

 under iny notice, had been so fo'r'a'number of i '"«"'*' "' pliysical exertion for a considerable pe- 

 years. It was planted in drills one foot apart and \ "°^- ^t the last dates, he had nearly recovered, 

 was hoed between when needful in the spring, but ' 



