lucerne en · NOUN
Etymology
Borrowed from French luzerne, from Occitan luzerno, of uncertain origin.
Meanings
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(archaic, uncountable) Alfalfa.
Harvesting. With the aid of thoroughly up-to-date machinery, lucerne haymaking on the farm has become a regular routine. Briefly, the hay is cut with an ordinary mower, drawn into windrows with a rotary rake, picked up by a hay loader, carted direct to a derrick press, baled and wired without the formality of being stacked, and drawn at once to the railway. From waving lucerne in the paddock to fragrant hay on the truck something less than three days is involved in the height of the season, and a team of eight men, including the foreman, keep pace with the growth of 120 acres.
1922, New South Wales Department of Agriculture, “Leguminous Crops”, in The Farmers' Handbook, 4th edition, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia: John Spence, page 557:I went and sat in the pile of lucerne hay.
1963, Ronald Hugh Morrieson, The Scarecrow, Text Classics, published 2012, page 14: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.
1841, Jesse Buel, The Farmers' Instructor, volume 1, Harper and Brothers, pages 202-203: