HISTORY. 63 
well got in, my horses that have worked hard have been kept on 
it alone without any grain, have been so fond of it that they have 
refused beans and oats mixed with chaff in the common way for 
it. Sheep also will be fatted in pens in winter, with only this 
hay and water, better than with corn, peas, oats, and the like. In 
short, there is no hay that is made is equal to it, and the produce 
will be double that of clover. The land where it is sown should 
be very clean from weeds, under a fine tilth; which is best done 
by a turnip fallow. 
Lucerne is the plant which the ancients were so fond of under 
the name of Medica, and in the culture of which they bestowed 
such great care and pains, Its leaves grow three at a joint, like those 
of the clover; its flowers are blue, and its pods of a screw-like 
shape, containing seeds like those of the red clover but longer 
and more kidney shaped, and the color all yellow. The stalks 
grow erect, and after mowing they immediately grow up again 
from the parts where they were cut off. The roots are longer 
than the saintfoin, and are not single, but some times they run 
perpendicularly in three or four places from the crown. 
It is the only plant in the world whose hay is equal to the 
saintfoin for the fattening of cattle; but its virtues in that re- 
spect are very great. It is the sweetest grass in the world, but 
must be given to cattle with caution, and in small quantities, 
otherwise they will swell, and incur diseases from it. 
Though the common methods of husbandry will not raise 
lucerne to any great advantage, yet the drilling and the horse- 
hoe husbandry will raise it, annually increasing in value to the 
owner, and make one of the most profitable articles of his busi- 
ness. 
The soil to plant it on must be either a hot gravel, or a very 
rich and dry land that has not an under stratum of clay, and is 
not too near springs of water. The natural poorness of gravel or 
sand may be made up by dung, and the benefit of the hoe, and 
the natural richness of the other lands, being increased by hoe- 
ing and cleansing from grass, the lucerne will thrive with less 
heat; for what is wanted in one of those qualities must be made 
up in the other. 
The best season for planting of it is early in the spring, the 
earlier the better; for then there is always moisture enough in 
the earth to make it grow, and not too much heat as would dry 
up its tender roots, and kill it after the first shootings. About 
a pound and a half of seed will be enough for an acre. 
The planting it in autumn in some climates might do; but 
here the winters are too cold, which would kill great part of the 
tender plants, and greatly stunt and injure those it does not kill. 
