SUNDRY AGRICULTURAL PLANTS 91 



nutritious than Red Clover. When given alone, especially if 

 cut very young, there is a possibility that cattle fed upon it 

 may become blown, but when chaffed with good oat or barley 

 straw Lucerne is a wholesome and valuable food. Several 

 cuts are obtained in a year, making altogether an immense 

 weight of keep. It is not worth while to sow seed unless the 

 crop can be allowed to stand for at least three years. 



Between 1893 and 1906 the area of Lucerne in England 

 expanded from 17,617 acres to 55,405 acres, the increase 

 amounting to 37,788 acres — a sufficient proof that the merits 

 of TiUcerne are becoming more generally appreciated, especially 

 in seasons of drought. 



ONOBRYCHIS SATIVA 



(^Sainfoin). 



Sainfoin has been cultivated in this country for over two 

 hundred years. It is essentially a food for sheep, which in 

 pasturing the plant do it no injury. Sainfoin is also useful for 

 horses, but produces nothing hke the quantity of green food 

 that can be obtained from Lucerne. 



In Norfolk and some other of the Eastern counties, 

 Sainfoin takes the place of Red Clover, and is rarely allowed 

 to remain down more than two years, generally only one. 

 Against this practice nothing can be urged, for it is probably 

 the best possible preparation for wheat. But the method 

 adopted in Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Wiltshire, and Hampshire, 

 of putting down Sainfoin alone for four or five years, has 

 grave disadvantages. Gradually the Sainfoin plant diminishes, 

 and every form of worthless vegetation increases, until the 

 land becomes exceedingly foul. Instead of sowing Sainfoin 

 alone, to remain down more than two years, the seed may 

 with advantage form one of the constituents in a mixture of 

 grasses and clovers for three or four years' ley. The sowing 



