cultivated lucerne ten or a dozen years, and it has been almost my whole dependance for the summer support of my cows and a yoke of oxen. An acre has been worth to me fifty dollars a year. But to ensure a profitable crop, certain requisites are necessary, some of which I will name.

Lucerne must be sown on a dry soil.-The roots penetrate four to six feet, and these will neither grow nor live where there is water. Sand, gravel, or loam are the best soils for it.

It should be sown on a rich and clean soil.-Without the first the crop will be diminutive; and if weeds abound, they will rob and choke the young lucerne, which is feeble during its early growth. The best preparation for it is a crop of potatoes, well manured, and well cleaned in tilling.

Sow 16 pounds to the acre, broadcast, with half a bushel of winter rye, early in May, in ground well pulverized; harrow in the seed, and follow with the roller. Or the seed may be put in with a drill-barrow, at 12 to 18 inches between the drills, at the rate of 10 lbs. the acre, and in this case the intervals should be kept clean with the hoe or otherwise. The duration of lucerne is 6 to 10 years; though it sometimes, like clover, suffers from the winter.

To make lucerne into hay, it should lie in the swath to wilt, and then be put into small grass-cocks with a fork (not rolled) to cure. After standing a day or two, the cocks may be opened two or three hours under a bright sun, the hay turned, and soon after housed. If spread like ordinary grass, the leaves dry and crumble ere the haulm or stalks are cured, and thus the best part of the fodder is lost. I have mixed lucerne, partially cured, in alternate strata with dry barley-straw on the mow, and found that cattle greedily consumed both in winter, when fed out in the yard.

Lucerne may be sown till the 15th of May, at the

rate of sixteen pounds to the acre.

The soil should

be dry and loose, rich and clean, and the subsoil pervious, so that the tap-roots may extend down four or five feet, without encountering clay, hardpan, or water. Potatoes are a good preparation for lucerne; but they ought to be well dunged, and kept clean of weeds. The seed of lucerne may be sown in drills with a drill-barrow, the drills eighteen inches apart, when nothing is sown with it; or it may be sown broadcast with small grains, and the ground should be well harrowed and rolled. Our practice has been to sow half a bushel of winter rye with the seed to the acre. When it has taken root it withstands the drought better than any other grass, on account of its long tap-roots. It may, and if there are many weeds, it ought to be mown the last of August, after sowing. In subsequent years it may be cut as soon as it shows blossom, and if the soil is good, it will bear cutting three, and often four times in a season. The great economy of this grass is to cut and feed it green. All farm-stock, including hogs, are fond of it. An acre of good lucerne will keep five or six cows from the 20th May to October. If made into hay, it should be cured in cock, to prevent the waste of the leaves. Partially cured, and mixed in the barn with barley-straw, in alternate layers, it saves well, and very much improves the straw. The seed may be had at the seed shops, at twenty-five and thirty cents per pound. It is mostly imported from France.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Root Culture.

ROOT culture presents many advantages to the stock farmer. Roots are less exhausting to the soil than grain; they are admirably fitted to form a part of a course of crops; are very beneficial in pulverizing the soil; afford abundance of food for farmstock may be substituted for grain, and serve to augment and improve the valuable product of the cattle-yard. An acre of ground under good culture will produce, on a fair average, twenty tons of Swedish turnips, mangel wurzel, carrots, parsnips, or potatoes. Supposing a lean animal to consume one bushel a day, and a fattening animal two bushels, the produce of an acre will then subsist three lean bullocks 110 days, nearly the period of our winter, and three fatting ones 55 days. We merely assume these as reasonable data, and ask if the result does not prove the profitableness of their culture. But we are not permitted to doubt upon this subject, if we credit the testimony of those who have tried them, and whose continuance in the culture is the best proof of their value. Roots enter largely into the system of Flemish husbandry, which has been extolled as inferior to none other, and in many parts of Great Britain turnips are considered the basis of profitable farming. In our country, root culture is winning its way to notice and to favour. Few who have managed it judiciously have been willing to relinquish it, while others are annually commen. cing it. The great obstacles to the more rapid extension of the culture among us is the want of experience, the want of proper implements, as drill

barrows, cultivators, &c., and the labour of securing the crop in winter. The apparent magnitude of these obstacles is daily diminishing, and we shall, ere long, discover that root crops may be cultivated and secured for winter use, as easily as other farmcrops. We have had very little experience in cultivating carrots, parsnips, or mangel wurzel as field crops; but the Swedish turnip has been a favourite crop for some years; and we can truly say, it has been one of the most sure and profitable that we have taken from our grounds.-Ed. Cult.

Ruta Baga, or Swedish Turnip.-The turnip culture is beginning to arrest the attention of our husbandmen, and it will acquire new interest as its advantages come to be better appreciated and its practice better understood. Its introduction into Britain forms one of the most important eras in the improvement of British husbandry, and its introduction into our country will ultimately prove highly beneficial. Of the various species of the turnip, the ruta baga is decidedly superior for the nutritious properties which it possesses, and for its hardy, latekeeping qualities. Having had some years' experience in its culture, we submit the following considerations as the result of our practice.

The soil best adapted to the Swedish turnip is one of loose texture and dry, inclining to sand, gravel, or loam. It should be rich, well pulverized, and clean. A clover lay, covered with yard manure previous to its being ploughed under, is to be preferred.

The preparation for the crop consists in one perfect ploughing, if a lay, a faithful harrowing, and the roller may be applied between the ploughing and harrowing with benefit.

The season for sowing is from the 25th June to the 5th July. A cutting of early clover may be first taken off the ground before it is ploughed for ruta baga. The best method of sowing is with the drill-barrow, VOL -S

an implement which costs ten or twelve dollars, and which comes in use for other purposes, in drills two and a half feet apart. With this a man will put in four or five acres a day. The crop may also be sown broadcast, or drilled in with a line and hoe, though the operation is more tedious, and, when sown broadcast, the expense of cleaning and thinning materially increased.

The quantity of seed requisite for the acre is one pound-cost six to eight shillings-though, if well drilled, half this quantity will suffice.

The after-culture consists in thinning the plants and keeping the crop free from weeds. The plants should be thinned to eight or ten inches, as soon as they show their second or third pair of leaves, and it is important to have the first weeding performed early, as this not only benefits the crop, but saves subsequent labour.

The implements best adapted to the turnip culture are the cultivator, or horse-hoe, and turnip handhoe. The first is passed between the drills as soon as the plants show their second pair of leaves, and may be repeated at intervals with little expense and manifest advantage. It destroys the weeds, if applied in time, except on a strip of two or three inches where the plants grow, pulverizes the surface, and renders the soil permeable to atmospheric and solar influence. The operation of cleaning is finished with the hand-hoe, the cutting part of which may be likened to the blade of a thin case knife, the two extremities of which are drawn out, turned up, united, and form the shank to attach the hoe to the handle. The advantages of this hoe are, that it does not gather the dirt and weeds, and may be drawn along the drills as far as the arms extend without being raised, and across the drill, between the plants to be retained, and almost wholly supersedes hand-weeding. Two cleanings with the hoe generally suffice.