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British Dairy Farming, 
and the mixing of grass-seeds with lucerne, or more appro- 
priately the lucerne with grass, for the grass itself had barely 
commenced to grow an aftermath when the lucerne was readv 
to cut again. Many w^riters and practitioners have suggested 
that lucerne should be drilled and kept clean by hoeing, in order 
that the crop might remain upon the ground for 10 or 12 years. 
Professor Lecouteux shows that in France it used to remain 
from 18 to 20 years upon the soil upon which it was sown for 
the first time ; but after examining very many instances of the 
cultivation of lucerne, I believe that labour in hoeing is not only 
too costly, but in vain, for it is seldom possible to keep the plant 
clean. This being so, it will be found more profitable to let it 
remain 5 or 6 years, and to secure a succession by sowing it 
elsewhere. The chief things to avoid in a soil are absence of 
lime, coldness or dampness ; but with a deep tilth of the right 
nature lucerne will not only grow well, but will require very 
little manure, if the land has been well prepared. Sir John 
Lawes very kindly showed me, some two years ago, the depth 
to which the roots of lucerne extended in a pit which was dug 
in the centre of one of his experimental plots. This was from 
9 to 13 feet. The depth of root explains the cause of the 
vitality of the plant in hot weather, and perhaps also the source 
of its life — its nitrogen — for at Rothamsted Sir John says that 
it has extracted from somewhere, between 100 and 200 lbs. 
per acre in a field where wheat cannot obtain more than 15 lbs. 
It has been recommended, from time to time, that a straw-crop 
should be taken before a lucerne-crop ; but as it is impossible 
to take too much trouble to clean the land, it would be much 
more to the purpose to take roots or a crop of maize. Land 
which is known to be foul should on no consideration be 
selected. A deep and fine tilth should be obtained by early 
ploughing and plenty of frost ; and as gaps are sure to be found, 
whether the seed is sown in drills or broadcasted, it is .worth 
while to prepare a garden seed-bed in order to fill them up — 
trouble taken in preparing a lucerne-crop being well repaid ; 
but it is very questionable whether hoeing should be undertaken, 
as unless it is continued throughout, the cost of the first hoeing 
will almost be thrown away. 
It is very questionable whether lucerne is so much appreciated 
as a food for milk-production as it ought to be. Its composi- 
tion is nearly what a cow requires, thus : — Water, 70 ; fat, '82 ; 
albuminoids, 3'82 ; carbo-hydrates, 13"60 — the nitrogenous prin- 
ciple being a little in excess ; but in practice I have found, as 
with other nitrogenous foods such as cotton-cake, that the milk 
was not only extremely rich in solids, but that it contained a 
large proportion of butter-fat — the butter produced being a 
