GROUND IVY Glecoma hederacea( Department of Agriculture, Ontario, Canada)
Externally: The fresh leaf bruised and bound around a new wound will hasten an early recovery. Ale hoof juice, honey and Marigold( Calendula) boiled together will clean fistulas, ulcers, and control the spreading or eating away of cancers and ulcers, and the less serious effect of the troublesome itching scabs, weals and other skin irritations in any part of the body. The juice dropped into the ear is helpful in noise and singing, and cleansing to decayed hearing.
ALFALFA
Medicago sativa( N. O.: Leguminoseae)
Common Names: Lucern, Buffalo Herb. Features: It is native to Asia and did not reach North America until around 1850 or 1860. This deepgrowing plant is seen from Maine to Virginia and westward to the Pacific coast in the United States.
North American Indians adapted Alfalfa quickly for human use, as well as for animals. In England and South Africa it is called Buffalo herb.
This is a perennial, herbaceous plant, with two stems. Leaflets: three-toothed above. Flowers: violet. Calyx: five-toothed. Corolla: papilionaceous, six lines long. Stamens: nine united and one free. Pod: spirally coiled and without spines. The small, violet-purple or bluish flowers bloom from June until August. In some regions it is cut every month as cultivated food for both man and animal.
The organic salt is among the richest known, the depth and spread of its roots enabling it to absorb its valuable nutrition as far as 125 ft. below the earth’ s surface. Medicinal Part: The leaves. Solvent: Water. Bodily Influence: Nutrient, Tonic. Uses: Alfalfa was discovered by the Arabs and is one of the first known herbs. They called it the“ Father of all Foods”. This is interesting as they knew only by evidential experience. It is only in recent years that we moderns are rediscovering its valuable nutritive properties, which include organic minerals of Calcium, Magnesium, Phosphorus and Potassium, plus all the known vitamins including Vitamin K and the recently discovered Vitamin B 8 and Vitamin P.
It is helpful for every condition of the body whether it be maintaining or regaining health, as the contents are balanced for complete absorption. It may be used by itself or blended with other herbal teas with or between meals.
Claudia V. James( 1963) mentions stock farmers of South Africa improving the beauty of ostrich feathers and that cows gave richer milk, chickens laid more often, with the food content of a better quality. State-wise, a turkey farm in Apple Valley, California, has better stock after including Alfalfa