Lucerne

Lucerne (Medicago sativa), a species of Medick (q.v.), one of the most valuable of the leguminous plants grown for the supply of green food to cattle. It is a native of the south of Europe, and has been cultivated there from an unknown antiquity. It is not very largely grown in Britain, but in some places very successfully, chiefly in the drier parts of the south of England. The climate of many districts of Scotland is not too cold for it. It is largely cultivated in some parts of North and South America. It endures great droughts, its roots penetrating very deep into the ground. Sir John Bennet Lawes states that at Rothamsted he has found it the best of all forage-crops for a drought. It delights in a rich and calcareous soil, and never succeeds on damp soils or tenacious clays. It is a perennial, and if kept free from weeds affords good crops for six, seven, or more years. It is sown in rows, at 10 or 14 inches apart, and may be mown several times in a year, growing very quickly after being mown. The quantity of produce is very great—sometimes from 20 to 30 tons per annum—and few other forage-plants are ready for use so early in spring. Lucerne has a rather erect stem, leaves with three obovate-oblong toothed leaflets; purplish-blue or sometimes yellow flowers in many-flowered racemes, and pods twisted two or three times round. It ought to be mown before it comes into flower, as it then becomes fibrous and less nutritious. In Spanish lands it is called Alfalfa.