SUNDRY AGRICULTURAL PLANTS 81 



war against Nature. Warm and calcareous soils are highly 

 favourable, and a sheltered field, sloping to the south, will 

 suit it to perfection, provided always that hme can be reached, 

 for this the plant must have. Sometimes there is a strong 

 desire to grow Lucerne on soil deficient in lime. To meet 

 the case a heavy dressing of marl is applied six months 

 before sowing ; but the process is costly, and at best the 

 effects are temporary, because it is impossible to bury the 

 marl deep enough to feed the roots after they have pierced 

 the surface soil. The richer the soil the earlier wiU Lucerne 

 come to fuU development, and land should be chosen in 

 which the roots wiU be able to strike down without undue 

 resistance. 



The principal point in the culture of Lucerne is to secure 

 a thoroughly clean seed-bed. Weeds soon ruin the plant, and 

 therefore farmyard or stable manure, although good in itself, 

 is dangerous from the seeds it may contain. Ash of all kinds 

 is beneficial, and, of com-se, artificial manure can be freely 

 resorted to. Three hundredweight of superphosphate per acre 

 is a good dressing. The best preparation is a crop of potatoes. 

 As a rule, April is the time for sowing, and the seed must not 

 be deeply buried. In England Lucerne is almost always sown 

 alone, while on the Continent a thin seeding of corn is often 

 put in with it.^ 



When well established the herbage must on no account 

 be allowed to grow old before being cut ; in fact, the plant 

 should not be permitted to flower. 



Lucerne" is rarely made into hay, as the leaves are lost 

 during the drying, and the process is exceedingly wasteful. 

 The most convenient and profitable way of growing it is to 

 sow a patch near the homestead, so that the daily portion 



1 Mv friend the late Mr. Clare Sewell Read told me that he had been most 

 successful in obtaining a plant of Lucerne by sowing it in wheat, while he had never 

 succeeded with it in barley, and seldom when sown alone. He attributed the failure 

 among barley to the closer sowing of this corn as compared with wheat ; and the failure 

 when sown alone to the plant being smothered by annual weeds. 



