British Dairy Farming. 
143 
brilliant yellow, of exceedingly firm texture even during the hot 
weather, and containing a most aromatic flavour. Firmness in 
the summer is a point of great importance, and there is no 
doubt that both lucerne and cotton-cake are extremely valuable 
in promoting it. In use, lucerne was cut and allowed to remain 
12 hours before it was given to the cattle, and, in commencing, 
a small quantity only was given at a time. The quantity of 
herbage cut from the acre-plot in the first year was close upon 
20 tons. A hundred lbs. was allowed to each cow daily as 
sufficient to provide for the wants of the animal, as well as for 
the requirements of all the milk she could possibly produce — 
the average weight of the beasts being 750 lbs. If, as I believe, 
this quantity of lucerne is sufficient for a Jersey cow, it follows 
that, with a crop of 20 tons per acre, 10 cows could be kept upon 
an acre for six weeks ; or making allowance for waste and loss, 
an acre of lucerne, if it could be consumed green, would keep a 
750-lb. cow for a year ; and if her manure were returned to it, 
there is no doubt that by the time the ley was ploughed up the 
surface of the soil would be richer than it had previously been, 
by reason of the increased quantity of nitrogen which had been 
extracted from the subsoil by the deep roots of the plant. In 
France a quantity of lucerne-hay is made, and I have seen it 
offered near Paris at the lowprice of 38 francsper 500 kilogrammes, 
or about 30s. per half a French ton, although it contained 76 per 
cent, of digestible albuminoids. Then, too, a mixture of lucerne 
and Italian rye-grass is sometimes sown in the autumn, in order 
that there may be a profitable return during the first year ; the 
maximum seed used is from 16 to 18 lbs. of lucerne with 8 to 
10 lbs. of rye-grass. M. Lecouteux has sown the following 
mixture upon what he ierms prairie pdture, i.e., land which is 
intended for pasture, but which is mown for the first two 
years : — 
Italian rye-grass 34 lbs. 
White clover 34 „ 
Eed clover 11 „ 
Lucerne 22 „ 
Holcus lanatus (Yorkshire fog) 11 „ 
Pimprenelle 2 „ 
114 lbs. 
or 114 lbs. per hectare, equal to 46 lbs. per acre. The inferior 
grass, Holcus, is largely patronised by the French, and I have 
seen it growing a considerable bulk of fodder in connection 
with lucerne. The quantity of nitrogen which lucerne contains 
makes it especially valuable for milk production. The French 
formula gives it a value of 13s. per ton, but it is worth con- 
