wet, they are soon dried again in good weather. As soon as ready, they are put into the summer-rick, or, if very dry, even the winter-stack, but are never opened out or tedded, to make them dry, as they never require it. By this method, not a blade is lost, and the hay is nearly as green as a leaf dried in a book. In a moderate crop, one woman will tipple to one mower, and a woman will rake to two tipplers, or two swathers. But where the crop is strong, it may require three women to keep pace with two mowers. After the hay is put up in this manner, the crop may be considered as secure, though it may continue wet weather for a considerable length of time." (General Report of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 11.)

5012. Hay is stacked in circular or oblong stacks, the latter form being most generally approved of, and carefully thatched, as has been already observed in regard to corn. It is never advisable to allow this kind of hay to become heated in any considerable degree, in the stack, though a slight exudation, with a very gentle warmth, is usually perceptible, both in the field-ricks and in the stacks, for a few days after they are built. But this is a quite different thing from that intentional heating, carried so far, in many instances, as to terminate in conflagration.

5013. The after-growth or second crop of clover is vigorous or weak, according to the proportion of clover plants to rye-grass, to the time when the first crop was cut, and to the moisture and warmth of the season. When the first cutting has been made early for soiling, there will sometimes be three cuttings in one season. The first of these aftercuttings may be made into hay, and sometimes the second; but in general, both are consumed by soiling or pasturing, unless in some dry warm districts, as Norfolk, and parts of Suffolk, Kent, &c., when the second growth is left to ripen its seed. In the northern counties the second crop is seldom made into hay, owing to the difficulty of getting it thoroughly dried at a late period of summer, when other more urgent operations usually employ all the laborers of a farm. If it be cut for this purpose, the best method of saving it, is to mix it up with straw, which will absorb a part of its juices. It is often cut green, as a part of the soiling system; or, where a sheep stock is kept, pastured by the old ewes, or other sorts, that are to be fattened the ensuing winter on turnips.

5014. In consuming clover and other herbage plants by pasturing or eating down on the spot, three methods have been adopted, tethering, hurdling, and free pasturage.

5015. Tethering may be considered a rude practice, and is chiefly confined to the north of Scotland and Ireland. In The Agricultural Report of Aberdeenshire, it is stated, that there are some cases, where the plan of tethering can be practised with more profit than even soiling. In the neighborhood of Peterhead, for instance, they tether milch-cows on their grass fields, in a regular and systematic method; moving each tether forward in a straight line, not above one foot at a time, so as to prevent the cows from treading on the grass that is to be eaten; care being always taken, to move the tether forward, like a person cutting clover with a scythe, from one end of the field to the other. In this way, a greater number of cows can be kept, on the same quantity of grass, than by any other plan; except where it grows high enough to be cut, and given them green in houses. In one instance, the system was carried to great perfection, by a gentleman who kept a few sheep upon longer tethers, following the cows. Sometimes also, he tethered horses afterwards upon the same field, which prevented any possible waste, for the tufts of grass produced by the dung of one species of animal, will be eaten by those of another kind, without reluctance. This system was peculiarly calculated for the cow-feeders in Peterhead; as, from the smallness of their holdings, they could not afford to keep servants to cut, or horses to carry home the grass to their houses, to be consumed in a green state. (Code.)

5016. In hurdling off clovers or herbage crops, a portion of the field is enclosed by hurdles, in which sheep are confined; and as the crop is consumed, the pen is changed to a fresh place, until the whole is fed off. This practice very extensively adopted at Holkham, and is peculiarly calculated for light and dry soils. Its advantages are, that the grass is more economically consumed; that the stock thrive better, having daily a fresh bite; and that the dung that falls, being more concentrated, is more likely to be of use.

5017. In the common pasturing of clover, the stock are introduced into the field earlier than in tethering or hurdling, in order to avoid the loss that would be sustained by cattle or sheep treading ad libitum on tall herbage. Indeed, the principal advantage of pasturing clovers is, that sheep and lambs may be turned on them more early than on common grass-lands. Sometimes this advantage is taken for a month or six weeks, in the beginning of summer, and the field afterwards shut up for a crop of hay; but more frequently the red clovers are only pastured the second year. When white and yellow clovers are sown, the herbage is sometimes not mown at all, but pastured for three or more years, and sometimes a little red clover being sown along with these, a crop of hay is taken the first year.

5018. The produce of clover-hay, without any mixture of rye-grass, on the best soils is from two to three tons per acre, and in this state in the London market it generally sells 20 per cent. higher than meadow-hay, or clover and rye-grass mixed. The weight

of hay from clover and rye-grass varies, according to the soil and the season, from one to three tons per English acre, as it is taken from the tramp-ricks; but after being stacked, and kept till spring, the weight is found to be diminished 25 or 30 per

cent.

5019. The value of clover and rye-grass hay, in comparison with the straw of beans or pease, may be in the proportion of three to two; and with the finest straw of corn crops, in the proportion of two to one. One acre of red or broad clover will go as far in feeding horses or black cattle, as three or four of natural grass. And when it is cut

occasionally, and given to them fresh, it will, probably, go still much farther, as no part of it is lost by being trodden down. With the exception of lucern, and the herbage of rich marshes, there is no crop, by which so much stock can be supported, as by clover. It may be profitably employed in fattening sheep in spring, and with this food, they will soon be ready for the butcher. Afterwards, a crop of bay may be got, and two or three weeks after the hay has been taken off, sheep intended to be fattened on turnips, may be turned in, and kept there, until the turnips are ready for them.

5020. The nutritive products of clovers will be found in the table. (4984.)

5021. The saving of clover seed is attended by considerable labor and difficulty. Clover will not perfect its seeds, if saved for that purpose early in the year; therefore it is necessary to take off the first growth either by feeding or with the scythe, and to depend for the seed on those heads that are produced in the autumn. Seed-clover

turns out to good account in those years when the crops are not injured by the blight, which is often fatal to them, or by the rains in the autumn, which sometimes prove their destruction; for the time of harvesting this seed falling out late when rainy weather may be expected, renders it, on that account, very tedious.

5022. When the first crop is fed off, it is eaten till about the end of May, frequently by ewes and lambs; and this is understood to be an advantageous practice, because the land is less exhausted, and the green food is of great value for stock in the spring months. It is not uncommon, however, to cut the first growth for a hay crop, and this should be done earlier than usual. The growth thus reserved for seed must be suffered to remain till the husks become perfectly brown, when it is cut and harvested in the usual manner, leaving it on the field till it is very dry and crisp, that the seeds may become more fully hardened; it may then be laid up dry, to be threshed out at the farmer's convenience. Much labor and expense are necessary in separating the seed from the capsule, or seed-coat, especially when it is effected by threshing, which seldom costs less than from five to six or seven shillings per bushel. By the use of mills the work may be done much cheaper.

5023. The produce in seed may generally be from three to four or five bushels per acre, when perfectly clean, weighing from two to three hundred weight. But there is great uncertainty in the produce of clover seed, from the lateness of the season at which it becomes ripe; and the fertility of the soil is considerably impaired by such a crop. Yet the high value of the seed is a great inducement to the saving of it, in favorable situations. (Dickson's Practical Agriculture, vol. ii. p. 863.)

5024. The diseases of clover are the blight or mildew, and suffocation or consumption, from insects, slugs, and worms. It often happens that clover after being repeated at short intervals on the same soil, either fails or does no good; whether that is owing to a disease or to a defect in some peculiar substance, which enters into the food of the plant, does not appear to be clearly ascertained. A top dressing with ashes or lime, is said to be unfavorable to the slug; but where vermin of this sort are very numerous, the most certain remedy is a naked fallow well worked in the hottest months.

SEET. II. Lucern.

Medicago sativa, L. Diadel. Decan. L. and Leguminosea, J. La Lucerne, Fr.; Futterklee, Ger.; and Medica, Ital. (fig. 569.) 5025. Lucern is a deep rooting perennial plant, sending up numerous small and tall clover-like shoots, with blue or violet spikes of flowers. It is a native of the south of Europe, and appears to be acclimated in the warmer parts of England. Lucern or medic is highly extolled by the Roman writers, and also the cytissus, the latter a low evergreen shrub. Lucern is much grown in Persia and Lima, and mown in both countries all the year round; it is also of unknown antiquity in old Spain, Italy, and the south of France. It was introduced to England from the latter country, according to Miller, in 1657. It is mentioned by Hartlib, Blythe, and other early writers, and was tried by Lisle; but it excited little attention till after the publication of Harte's Essays, in 1757. It is now only cultivated in a few places, and chiefly in Kent. Columella estimated lucern as the choicest of all fodder, because it lasted many years, and bore being cut down four, five, or six times a year. It enriches, he says, the land on which it grows, fattens the cattle fed with it, and is often a remedy for sick cattle. About three quarters of an acre of it is, he thinks, abundantly sufficient to feed three horses during the whole year. But though it was so much esteemed by the ancients, and has been long cultivated to advantage in France and Switzerland, it has yet found no great reception in this country. If any good reason can be given for this, it is, that lucern is a less hardy plant than red clover, requires three or four years before it comes to its full growth, and is for these and other reasons, ill adapted to enter into general rotations. Where the climate and soil suit, perhaps, a field of it may be advantageously sown, adjoining the homestall, to afford early cutting or food for young or sick animals, for which it is said to be well adapted; but though it will produce good crops for eight or ten years, yet from the time the

570

farmer must wait till this crop attains its perfection, and from the care requisite to keep it from grass and weeds, we do not think it is ever likely to come into general culture. 5026. There are no varieties of the lucern deserving the notice of a cultivator. What is called the yellow lucern, or Swiss lucern, is the Medicago falcata (fig. 570.), a much more hardy and coarser plant, common in several parts of England, but not cultivated any where excepting in some poor soils in Switzerland.

5027. The soil for lucern must be dry, friable, inclining to sand, and with a subsoil not inferior to the surface. Unless the subsoil be good and deep, it is in vain to attempt to cultivate lucern. According to Young, the soils that suit lucern, are all those that are at once dry and rich. If, says he, they possess these two criteria, there is no fear but they will produce large crops of lucern. A friable deep sandy loam on a chalk or white dry marly bottom, is excellent for it. Deep putrid sand warp on a dry basis, good sandy loam on chalk, dry marl or gravel, all do well; and in a word, all soils that are good enough for wheat, and dry enough for turnips to be fed on the land, do well for lucern. If deficient in fertility, they may be

made up by manuring, but he never yet met with any land too rich for it.

5028. The preparation of the soil consists in deep ploughing and minute pulverisation; and in our opinion, the shortest way to effect this, is to trench it over by the spade to two or three feet in depth, burying a good coat of manure in the middle or at least one foot from the surface. This is the practice in Guernsey, where lucern is highly prized.

5029. The climate for lucern, as we have already hinted, must be warm and dry; it has been grown in Scotland and Ireland, and might probably do well in the southern counties of the latter country, but in the former it has not been found to answer the commendations of its admirers.

5030. The season most proper for sowing lucern, is as early as can be done in the spring months, as in this way the plants may be fully established before the season becomes too hot. The latter end of March, for the more southern districts, may be the most proper period; and the beginning of the following month for those of the north. When sown late, there is more danger of the plants being destroyed by the fly, as has been observed by Tull. If the plants be intended to be transplanted out in the garden method, it will also be the best practice to sow the seed-bed as early in the spring as the frosts will admit, in order that they may be strong, and fit to set out about the beginning of August.

5031. The manner of sowing lucern is either broad-cast or in drills, and either with or without an accompanying crop of corn for the first year. Broad-cast, and a very thin crop of barley or other spring corn, is generally, and in our opinion, very properly preferred. Arthur Young, who has treated largely on this plant, observes, that "the greatest success by far that has been known, is by the broad-cast method, which is nearly universal among the best lucern farmers, even among men who practise and admire the drill husbandry in many other articles. But as they mostly (not all) depend on severe harrowing for keeping their crops clean, which is a troublesome and expensive operation, he still ventures to recommend drilling, but very different drilling from that which has been almost universally practised, viz. at distances of eighteen inches or two feet. Objections to these wide intervals are numerous. If kept clean hoed, the lucern licks up so much dirt, being beaten to the earth by rain, &c. that it is unwholesome, and the plants spread so into these spaces, that it must be reaped with a hook, which is a great and useless expense. For these reasons, as well as for superiority of crop, he recommends drilling at nine inches, which in point of produce, mowing, and freedom from dirt, is the same as broad-cast; and another advantage is, that it admits scarifying once a year, which is much more powerful and effective than any harrowing. These facts are sufficient to weigh so much with any reasonable man, as to induce him to adopt this mode of drilling, as nearer to broad-cast by far than it is to drills at eighteen to twenty-four inches, which open to a quite different system, and a set of very different evils. Nine inch rows might practically, but not literally, be considered as broad-cast, but with the power of scarifying. And in regard to the material point, of with or without corn, two considerations, he says, present themselves. One is the extreme liability of lucern to be eaten by the fly, which does great mischief to many crops when very young, and against which the growing of corn is some protection. The value of the barley or oats is another object not to be forgotten. It is also gained in the first year's growth of the lucern, which is very poorly productive even if no corn be sown, so that he must own himself clearly an advocate for drilling in among corn, either between the rows of nine inch barley, or across drilled barley, at a foot if perhaps the latter is the best method, as there is less probability of the crop being laid to the damage of the lucern. The quantity of seed-corn should also be small, proportioned to the richness of the land, from one bushel to a bushel and a half, according to the fertility of the soil, another security against the mischief of lodging. If these precautions are taken, it would be presumptuous to say that success must follow, that being always, and in all things, in other hands than ours; seed may prove bad, the fly may eat, and drought prevent vegetation, but harring such circumstances, the farmer may rest satisfied that he has done what can be done, and if he does succeed, the advantage will be unquestionable."

5032. The quantity of seed, when the broad-cast method is adopted, is said to be from 15 to 20 lbs. per acre, and from 8 to 12 if drilled, The seed is paler, larger, and dearer than that of clover: it is generally imported from Holland, and great care should be had to procure it plump and perfectly new, as two years old seed does not come up freely. The same depth of covering as for clover will answer.

5033. Lucern may be transplanted, and when the soil is very rich and deep, it is said to produce very large plants; but such plants, from the bulk of their stools, are not likely to be so durable as those of a less size, and on the whole, for this and other reasons relative to expense, the plan of transplanting does not seem advisable unless for filling up blanks.

5034. The after-culture of lucern, sown broad-cast, consists in harrowing to destroy grass and other weeds; rolling, after the harrowing, to smooth the soil for the scythe, and such occasional top-dressings of manure as the state of the plants may seem to require. Where lucern is drilled, horse-hocing may be substituted for harrowing, which, as already observed, is the only advantage of that mode of sowing. The harrowing may commence the second year, and the weeds collected should always be carefully removed : light harrows may be used at first, and in two or three years such as are heavier. In succeeding years two harrowings may be required, one early in the spring, and the other at the close of the summer. For these, and especially the last, Arthur Young recommends the use of a harrow of such weight as is sufficient for four horses, and which does not cover a breadth of more than four feet. The mode of hoeing, either by the hand or horse-hoe, or of stirring by the drill harrow, requires no description,

5035. The top-dressings given to lucern may be either of the saline or mixed manures. Ashes are greatly esteemed, and also gypsum and liquid manure of any kind. Arthur Young advises to apply dung, in the quantity of about twenty tons to the acre, every five or six years. Kent, however, thinks it a better practice to put a slight coat on annually in the spring season. Some recommend a slight top-dressing sown by hand every spring. The farmer will in this, as in every case, exercise his own judgment, and be guided by the wants of the plants, the return they yield for the expense bestowed on them, and the equable distribution of manure among his other crops.

5036. The taking of lucern by mowing for soiling, or hay, or by tethering, hurdling, or pasturing, may be considered as the same as for clover. Lucern frequently attains a sufficient growth for the scythe, towards the end of April, or beginning of the following month; and in soils that are favorable for its culture, will be in a state of readiness for a second cutting in the course of a month or six weeks longer, being capable of undergoing the same operation, at nearly similar distances of time during the whole of the summer season. In this last sort of soil, with proper management, in the drill method, it has been found to rise to the height of a foot and a half in about thirty or forty days, affording five full cuttings in the summer. But in the broad-cast crops, in the opinion of some, there are seldom so many cuttings afforded in the season, three or four being more common, as the growth is supposed to be less rapid than by either of the other modes.

5037. The application of lucern is also the same as of clover. The principal and most advantageous practice, in the application of lucern, is that of soiling horses, neat cattle and hogs; but as a dry fodder, it is also capable of affording much assistance, and as an early food for ewes and lambs, may be of great value in particular cases. All agree in extolling it as food for cows, whether in a green or dried state. It is said to be much superior to clover, both in increasing the milk and butter, and improving its flavor. In its use in a green state, care is necessary, not to give the animals too much at a time, especially when it is moist, as they may be hoven or blown with it, in the same way as with clover, and other green food of luxuriant growth.

5038. The produce of lucern, cut three times in a season, has been stated at from three to five and even eight tons per acre. In soiling, one acre is sufficient for three or four cows during the soiling season, and a quarter of an acre, if the soil be good for all sorts of large stock, for the same period, or half an acre on a moderate soil. Say, however, that the produce is equal in bulk and value to a full crop of red clover, then, if continued yearly for nine or ten years (its ordinary duration in a productive state), at an annual expense of harrowing and rolling, and a triennial expense of top-dressing, it will be of sufficient value to induce farmers, who have suitable soils and climates, to lay down a few acres under this crop near their home-stalls.

5039. The nutritive product of lucern, according to Sir H. Davy, is 2 per cent., and is to that of the clovers and saintfoin as 23 to 39. This result does not very well agree with the superior nutritive powers attributed to lucern.

5040. To save seed, the lucern may be treated precisely as the red clover, and it is much easier threshed, the grains being contained in small pods, which easily separate under the flail, or a threshing machine, or clover mill.

5041. The diseases of lucern appear to be the same as those of clover. In Kent, blight and the slug are its greatest enemies.

SECT. III. Saintfoin.

Hedysarum Onobrychis, L. Diadel. Decan. L. and Leguminosea, J. L'esparcet, Fr.; Esparzette, Ger. ; and Cedrangola, Ital. (fig. 571.) 5042. Saintfoin is a deep rooting perennial with branching spreading stems, compound leaves, and showy red flowers. It is a native of England and many parts of Europe, but never found but on dry warm chalky soils, where it is of great duration. It has been long cultivated in France and other parts of the continent, and as an agricultural plant was introduced from the latter country to England about the middle of the seventeenth century. It has since been a good deal cultivated in the chalky districts; and its peculiar value is, that it may be grown on soils unfit for being constantly under tillage, and which would yield little undergrass. This is owing to the long and descending roots of the saintfoin, which will penetrate and thrive in the fissures of rocky and chalky understrata. Its herbage is said to be equally suited for pasturage or for hay, and that eaten green it is not apt to swell or hove cattle like the clovers or lucern. Arthur Young says, that upon soils proper for this grass no farmer can sow too much of it, and in The Code of Agricul

ture it is said to be one of the most valuable herbage plants we owe to the bounty of Providence."

5043. There are no varieties of the saintfoin, but many other species of the same numerous family that might be cultivated, such, for example, as the French honeysuckle, a biennial, that might be substituted for red clover on rich soils.

5044. The best soil for this plant is that which is dry, deep, and calcareous; but it will grow on any soil that has a dry subsoil. Kent thinks that the soils most suited to the culture of this sort of grass are those of the chalky loam, and light sandy or gravelly kinds, or almost any of those of a mixed quality, provided they be not too wet, and have a rocky or hard calcareous bottom to check the roots at the depth of a foot or fifteen inches below the surface, which he, notwithstanding the above, conceives necessary, as the plants are apt to exhaust themselves in running down. And for this reason he considers it as improper for being sown where there is great depth of mould or soil. It is a plant that is asserted by Marshal to afford a large produce even on those soils which are of the poorest quality, and that on such as are of a more rich and friable nature it frequently produces abundant crops. Still, he conceives, that it is only in the calcareous soils, as the dry chalk and limestone, or such as have been well impregnated with that sort of matter, that it succeeds in a perfect manner or becomes durable. The advantages resulting from growing this plant on sandy soils in Norfolk have been already stated (4379.). 5045. The best preparation which any soil fit for this plant can undergo, is unquestionably that of trenching; and we have little doubt that in most cases, all things considered, it would be found the cheapest. The usual preparatory culture, however, is the same as for clover, ploughing however, deeper than ordinary, either by means of the trench plough, or, what is better because more simple, by the common plough going twice in the same track. Boys (Communications to the Board of Agriculture, vol. iii.) recommends as a preparation for saintfoin; 1st year, pare and burn for turnips, to be eaten on the land by sheep, with the aid of some fodder; 2d, barley, to be sown very early with clover seed; 3d, clover eaten off by sheep; 4th, wheat; 5th, turnips with manure; and, 6th, barley with saintfoin. The corn crops must be carefully weeded, and in particular cleared of charlock. Under this system, the produce has been great, and the ground has been laid down in the highest order with saintfoin, or any other grass calculated for this species of soil.

5046. With respect to the season of sowing saintfoin, it may be observed that the earlier it can be put into the soil in the spring the better, as from the greater moisture of such soils there will be a greater probability of their vegetating in a perfect manner. Where the sowing is executed at a late period, and dry weather succeeds, Bannister thinks that much of the seed would be prevented from growing, and the young plants be more exposed to the destruction of the fly; therefore, according to this writer, the sowing of saintfoin seed ought never to be deferred longer than the beginning of March, and that it is still better to complete this work in February. Some, however, suppose it may be deferred to the middle of March without injury.

5047. The manner of sowing is almost always broad cast, but it may be sown in drills and even transplanted, though neither of these modes can be recommended. Some advise its being sown with about half the quantity of barley which is usually sown for a full crop, as it may shade and keep it moist during the first summer, and at the same time not injure it from the crop being lighter, which is sometimes the case. Where the barley is drilled the saintfoin may afterwards be put in, in the same manner, but in a contrary