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XXI. — On the Composition of the Yellow Lupine, and a Soil 
suitable to its Culture. By Du. Augustus Voelckek. 
The yellow lupine {Lupinus luteus), a well-known ornamental 
plant of GUI' flower-gardens, is now extensively cultivated as a 
field-crop in several parts of Germany, France, and Belgium ; 
more especially it is largely seen in the sandy districts of 
Northern Germany and Prussia, where it is considered a very 
im})ortant crop to the farmer, inasmuch as it will thrive luxu- 
riantly on poor, blowing sands, upon which no other leguminous 
crop can be grown. 
A short account of the manner in which this new field- 
crop is grown in Germany will be found in vol. xx. (1859) of 
this Journal. It appears from this account, given by Baron 
Herman von Nathusius, of Hundisburg, near Magdeburg, that 
two distinct species of lupine, the yellow and the blue, arc 
grown in Prussia. The yellow lupine (^Lupinus luteus), being 
more succulent and covered with more and larger leaves than 
the blue (Lupinus anqustifolius, Linn.), is generally preferred 
to the latter, especially if grown as green food, and not for 
seed. 
Lupines are grown in Germany principally for the sake of 
the seeds, which, like those of all leguminous plants, constitute 
a very nutritious food, and in their composition and nutritive 
qualities, as far as these have been ascertained, do not differ much 
from peas and lentils. 
Occasionally the yellow lupine is grown as a green manure. 
It is considered very useful for that purpose. 
More rarely lupines are grown in Germany for the sake of 
affording green food to sheep and cattle. For this latter pur- 
pose I think, however, the yellow lupine is well adapted. If I 
am not mistaken, the field-culture of lupines will, if at all prac- 
ticable in this countiy, be found chiefly valuable as a source of 
green nutritious food for sheep and cattle, on soils upon which 
clover and the finer and more nutiitious kinds of grasses either 
refuse to grow altogether, or only furnish a scanty supply of 
inferior green food. 
The English agricultural community is indebted to Mr. 
Thomas Crisp, of Butley Abbey, for the publication of Baron 
Nathusius' account respecting the cultivation of lupines in 
Germany, This gentleman, as far as I know, was the first who, 
in 1858, successfully attempted their introduction as a field-crop 
in this country. Mr. Crisp speaks very highly of their import- 
ance to the farmer, and strongly commends their cultivation 
