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{{Inc|
+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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