Seed quality. 
154 
Seed and amounts to be sown. he average purity is 97.2°o and the germination 
89%. Good average seed should have 98 °%o purity and 90° germination == 88.2 %/o of 
pure and germinating seed. The above percentages of germination include one half of 
the hard seeds. The percentage of hard seed is often very high especially when the seed 
is recent, but diminishes with age. It follows that seed a year old is usually better than 
when recently cropped, and when two or three years old, it can be sown with the greatest 
Lucerne. 
Medicago sativa, L. 
The seed, natural size, and 
I ed 
Fig. 68. 
Spotted medick, 
Medicago maculata, Willd, 
The seed, natural size, and 
Fig. 67, 
Medicago denticulata, Willd, 
The legume 4. 
Spotted medick, 
Medicago maculata, Willd, 
The legume X 4. 
\ 
(1) 
Fig, 69. Fig. 70. 
Medicago denticulata, Willd. Portions of steel wire out 
The seed, natural size, and of the seeds, natural size. 
Ad 
Amount to be 
x< 7. 
freedom if originally good. Seed of good quality ought to be yellow and neither brown nor 
at all shrivelled. One bushel weighs from 61 to 68 Ibs. One pound of pure seed contains 
from 182,000 to 287,000 grains. Seed from Provence is that which has the largest grains. 
On an average, an acre requires 25 lbs. of seed containing 88 °/o pure and germi- 
nating = 22 Ibs. of pure and germinating seed. The amount to be used however, varies 
If the climate is unfavourable, the soil poor and over or under medium stiffness, the 
sown. 
with the soil, situation, climate and manure. 
Preparatory 
crop. 
Preparation of 
the soil, 
amount should be increased. Thick sowing is advisable for several reasons: — the plants 
are not so liable to be laid, the fodder is better because the stems are less lignified, and 
weeds are kept under. 
Whether a field of lucerne is good or not depends largely upon the previous crop and, 
above all, on careful preparation of the land to be sown, for this plant is never successful 
unless the soil is friable and free from weeds, and the subsoil loose. The best preparation 
is, therefore, a root crop, such a potatoes, turnips, etc. Lucerne may succeed a rye-crop 
cut green, but, in this case, the preparation of the ground requires considerable labour. 
Atter harvesting the preparatory crop, the ground is prepared as thoroughly and as 
deeply a possible. The subsoil-plough may be used, or two ploughs can be passed through 
