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Fenugreek (Trigonella Foenum-Graecum, literally Greek hay). An annual legume indigenous to
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western Asia, cultivated for human food, forage, and for medicinal qualities; widely
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naturalized in Mediterranean countries; little grown in America.
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Fenugreek is an erect little-branched plant with 3- foliolate leaves. The seeds are 1 or 2
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lines long, brownish yellow and marked with an oblique furrow half their length. They emit a
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peculiar odor, and contain starch, mucilage, a bitter extractive, a yellow coloring matter,
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and 6 per cent of fixed and volatile oils. As human food they are used in Egypt, mixed with
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wheat flour, to make bread; in India, with other condiments, to make curry powder; in
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Greece, either boiled or raw, as an addition to honey; in many oriental countries, to give
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plumpness to the female human form. The plant is used as an esculent in Hindostan; as an
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early fodder in Egypt, Algiers, France, and other countries bordering the Mediterranean.
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Formerly the seed was valued in medicine; now it is employed only in the preparation of
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emollient cataplasms, enemata, ointments and plasters, never internally. In veterinary
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practice it is still esteemed for poultices, condition powders, as a vehicle for drugs, and
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to diminish the nauseating and griping effects of purgatives. It is commonly used by
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hostlers to produce glossy coats upon their horses and to give a temporary fire and vigor;
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by stockmen to excite thirst and digestion in fattening animals; by manufacturers of patent
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stock foods as a flavoring ingredient.
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Fenugreek does not succeed on clays, sands, wet or sour soils. It yields most seed upon
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well-drained loams of medium texture and of moderate fertility; most fodder upon rich lands.
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For seed-production, potash and phosphoric acid should be applied; for forage, nitrogenous
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manures. Deep plowing and thorough harrowing are essential. Ten to twenty pounds of seed
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should be used broadcast, or seven to ten pounds in drills 18 inches apart. Thinning when
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the plants are 2 or 3 inches tall, and clean culture throughout theseason until blossoming
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time, are necessary for a seed crop. The crop may be mown, dried andthreshed four or five
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months after seeding. An average yield should be about 950 pounds an acre. As a green
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manure, fenugreek is inferior to the clovers, vetches and other popular green manures of
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this country. It possesses the power of obtaining nitrogen from the air by means of
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root-tubercles.For description of the plant, see Trigonella. M. G. Kains.
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