I14 PRACTICAL NOTES ON GRASSES AND GRASS GROWING. 
‘believe that lucerne is altogether indifferent to the nature of the 
surface soil. 
Lucerne prefers good dry land, and its roots penetrate the 
soil to an incredible distance, 40 feet not being uncommon. 
American authorities give 60 feet as the depth, possibly they 
are not incorrect. One instance we think worthy of recording. 
In a letter to Zhe Fie/d, dated March 28th, 1896, signed 
“Traveller,” we read :—“ We were laid up on a Columbian 
river under a bluff about 100 feet high, when I happened 
to notice that the boat was made fast in front of a huge 
root. My curiosity was excited, and I put the query to 
the raw-boned skipper, who replied, ‘That’s the roots of the 
farmer’s A/fa/fa, the darned stuff is creeping down to get a 
drink at the river, as it don’t rain of no account in this country.’ ” 
The traveller here admits that the statement was so startling, he 
doubted it, but he goes on to say that he measured the root 
and found it, as far as he could recollect, to be nine inches in 
circumference. In conclusion he stated the skipper was a man 
generally regarded as truthful. 
From the fact that lucerne gathers much mineral matter and 
nitrogen, which is a value to plant life, and, being leguminous, 
it also extracts much from the air, both of which it deposits 
near the surface of the soil, we draw our conclusion that it is a 
most valuable producer, and most beneficial to the soil for the 
vegetation which follows it. Our experiences show us that 
these foods are only auxiliary to the surface soil on which it 
largely feeds, and that lucerne is also amenable to the plant 
food which may be deposited upon the land during its dormant 
stage in the winter, 
When selecting the land on which it is proposed to plant 
lucerne, it is, as we have before said, most important that the 
sub-soil should be studied, as it is of more importance than the 
situation (of the land), because if lucerne is sown where a 
suitable sub-soil exists the grass will be found to be compara- 
tively independent of the cold, although a superfluity of 
