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