Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/1033

 LUC

It is common in Germany, Sweden, and fome other coun- tries, and fometimes in autumn, comes over to us in vaft abundance, doing great mifchief to the orchards in the weft of England. It fings very fweetly, and, as it is faid, only in winter. Ray's Ornitholog. p. 181.

In the Linnasan fyftem of zoology, hxia is ufed for the name of a genus of birds of the pafleres kind ; the diftin- guifhing characters of which are, that the tongue is plain, equal, and whole ; the beak large, thick, and fhort, and crooked and convex both ways.

Of this genus are the coccotbraujles, hxia, or crsfs-bill, Sec. Lintiesus's Syft. Naturae, p. 48.

LOYAL, in the manege. A horfe is faid to be loyal, that freely bends all his force in obeying, and performing any manege he is put to ; and does not defend himfelf, or refift, notwithstanding his being ill treated.

A loyal mouth is an excellent mouth, of the nature of fuch as we call mouths, with a full reft upon the hand.

LOZENGES [Cyci] — Lozenges, among jewellers, are com- mon to brilliant and rofe diamonds. In the former they are formed by the meeting of the flail and ftar facets on the bezil j in the latter, by the meeting of the facets in the ho- rizontal ribs of the crown. "Jeffries on Diamonds. See the article Facets, &c.

LUBI, in botany, a name by which many authors have called the coconut-tree, or palma nucifera medica of other writers. Cornell. Syll. p. 43.

LUCAR, among the Romans, an appellation given to the money expended upon plays and public fhews. Pitifc.

LUCERNA, in zoology, the name of a fifh caught in the Mediterranean and fome other feas, of the cuculus kind, and very nearly approaching to the fhape and figure of the hirundo. Its tail is but flightly forked, and what diftin- guilhes it principally from the hirundo, is, that its fide lines near the tail divide into two, whereas in that fifh they con- tinue fingle. Its fcales are very fmall, and it has a furrow on the back, edged by twenty-five fpines on each fide. The gill fins are of a remarkable fize, and look like wings. It feeds on fhrimps and other fmall animals. See Tab. of Fifties, N°47. and Willugbbfs Hift. Pifc. p. 281.

LUCERNE, in hufbandry, the name of a plant frequently cultivated by our farmers in the manner of clover. It is the fame plant which the antients were fo fond of under the name of medica, and in the culture of which they beftowed fuch great care and pains. SeeMEDiCA. Its leaves grow three at a joint, like thofe of the clover ; its flowers are blue, and its pods of a fcrew like fhape, con- taining feeds like thofe of the broad clover, but larger, and more kidney fhaped.

The ftalks grow erect, and after mowing, they immediately grow up again from the parts where they were cut oft". The roots are longer than thofe of the faint foin, and are not fingle, but fometimes they run perpendicularly in three or lour places from the crown. 1 It is the only plant in the world, whofe hay is preferable to the faint foin for the fattening of cattle ; but its virtues, in that refpecT, are fo great, that they are not to be credited by any that have not tried the plant. It is the fwceteft grate in the world, but muft be given to cattle with caution, and in fmall quantities, otherwife they will fwell and incur difeafes from it.

The antients were at the greateft pains to plant this properly, they chofe the fatten: and beft land they had for it, and this they dunged and laid out in beds as we do for the choiceft gar- den plants. They fowed it in the end of April, firft carefully preparing the ground by breaking the clods, they then raked the earth over the feeds to cover them lightly, and when it was come up they carefully kept the beds clear of weeds. They fowed it very thick, and let the firft crop of it ftand till the feed was in part fhattered out, that they might be fure of more plants in the beds ; after this, they cut it as ' young as they pleafed, and it ufually yielded them four or five crops or more in a year. A land well planted with it, would, with proper management, laft ten years, and pro- duce largely all the time. It is computed that Englifh gar- diners make forty pounds of an acre of afparagus, or many other garden plants, with half the labour and expence, that was beftowed upon an acre of the Roman medica. This was a piece of hufbandry only pra£tifed while that great empire was in its glory ; at prefent they have very little medica or lucerne in Italy, and what they have is manured in a lefs trouble- fome manner.

In the fouth of France there is annually a great quantity of it raifed. They fow it alone in March, or in the end of September, choofing for this purpofe dry and fandy lands, but fuch as lie low.

They prepare thefe by ploughing and harrowing them very fine, and the fpring and autumn being rainy, they have no occafion to water the plants, while young, as the Romans did. The fummcrs in that part of the world are much drier than in Italy, and by that means the grafs is burnt up, and other weeds much deftroyed, fo that the crop does not want that vaft expence in weeding that the Roman medica did, by this means the expence alfo is greatly abated. Sup?!,. Vol. I.

LUC

The colder countries are lefs calculated fur the raifing of lu- cerne j becaufe being more wet, and lefs hot, the ground fooner hardens on the furface, and common grafs fooner grows into turf, and covers it, and this is the great deftruc- tion of lucerne. In SwifTerland they cultivate fmall parcels of it in their vineyards, that they may have it for their cat- tle, when fick, but it ufually ftands but about two years, and muft then be replanted; and, in F ranee, about Paris, they find it fuccecd fo ill, that they are now plowing it up, and fowing faint foin in its place as a plant, that much better keeps the grafs under.

Prom the fuccefs of lucerne, in other countries, there ap- pears very little profpeft of bringing it into ufe in England, where the feafons are more rainy, and the fun weaker. Our poor land will not produce crops of it fufficient to pay the expences of the farmer, and our rich land will produce grafs fo faft among it, that it will be foon choaked up and deftroyed.

It has been carefully tried to plant lucerne, in a meadow breaft, plowed and (own firft with carrots. When, by this means, the grafs was entirely deftroyed, the lucerne was fown, and flourifhed for two years ; but after that the graft grew among it, and wholly choaked it up ; and if it be tried in our gardens, it is always found to decline, as the grafs grows up amongft it, which is the fooner, the richer the land is.

The poor whitiih foil, fo common in many parts of Eng- land, has been tried for lucerne, as the natural grafs grows of itfelf, but poorly here : it was hoped the great incon- venience of lucerne in England might be obviated by this means; but the lucerne will not come to any perfection on this poor land ; and though it continues feveral years, is always fo weak and low, that the crops will fcarce pay the expence of mowing ; and by all the trials that have been made in England, all our land feems either too rich, too poor, or too cold, for the raifing this valuable plant, in the way of the common hufbandry.

The advantage of the new horfe-hoeing hufbandry is very evident in the cafe of this plant, for by it all the before- named inconveniences arc remedied, and thofe very pecu- liarities of our foil and climate, which prevented its fuccefs with us, become the means of that fuccefs. Mr. Tull fpeaks experimentally of the fuccefs of a great number of old plants of this lucerne in feveral lands, as well poor as rich ones ; and feems convinced, that many thou- fands of acres of Englifh. land are capable of producing, by this management, fine crops of it, and that for an age together. The greater degree of moifture, and lefs heat, of this climate, are all of the utmoft advantage to this plant, when horfe-boed, as that fufficiently prevents the growth of the turf which would deftroy it.

In the drier fummers in Italy and the fouth of France, the lucerne yields only four or five crops inftead of fix or feven ; but in the drieft fummers in England, it would fucceed the beft of all, and give the moft numerous crops. The horfe- hoeing prevents the turf, and makes the land imbibe the dews, and retain them for the nouriihment of the plants ; and lucerne, in flickered places, will grow by this means, even in our winter, plants of it having been feen at Chriftmas of fourteen inches high. Our winters need not be feared in regard to the lucerne, for at Neuf Chatell it is found to ftand all the winters very well ; yet there the rofemary plants all die if left out in the winter. This is a proof that the win- ters are more fevere than ours, for it is not one winter ia forty that hurts this fhrub with us.

In the year 1708, the lucerne in Languedoc fuffered by the feverity of the winter, but this was fo Iharp, that the olive trees, and even the walnut trees were alfo killed by it : as no fuch frofts come among us, as to kill our walnut trees, we need not fear a crop of this plant, for much of it fur- vived even there, when thofe trees periftied. In Languedoc the lucerne never arrives at any great height, except where it has the advantage of the plow ; and in Wiltshire there have been lands ibwn with it, where it grew but poorly and low ; but after the fame grounds had been plowed, and after corn laid down with faint foin, the lucerne plants that were left grew up to a vaft height, and were very vigorous, this fhews the advantage of the plow ; and all this advantage will be regularly given by horfe-hoeing, without the deftruction of any of the plants. Tull's Horfe- hoeing Hufbandry, p. 93. feq.

Though the common method of hufbandry will not raife lucerne to advantage ; yet the horfe-hoeing hufbandry will raife it annually, increafing in value to the owner, and make one of the moft profitable articles of his bufinefs of it.

The foil to plant it on muft be either a hot gravel, or a very rich and dry land, or fome other rich and dry land that has not an under ftratum of clay, and is not too near fprings of water. The natural poornefs of gravel may be made up by dung and the benefit of the hoe, and the na- tural richnefs of the other lands being increafed by hoeing and cleanfing ihem from grafs, the lucerne will thrive with lefs heat ; fur what is wanted in one of thefe qualities muft 15 U be.