SAINFOIN. 115 



before it was utilised in England the plant was known on 

 the Continent as a valuable one for agricultural purposes ; 

 and though it is indigenous the earlier supplies of seed 

 were imported from abroad ; hence one of its old names, the 

 French grass, the original sources whence the seed was 

 derived being France and Flanders. It seems to have crept 

 into use by slow degrees about the middle of last 

 century, but not to have been fully established till about 

 its close. In 1640, Parkinson speaks of it as "a singular 

 food for cattle," but it seems to have been little if at all 

 used in England at that date. Henze asserts that the plant 

 was not introduced into England until the year 1651, and 

 in this same year Hartlib, another writer, blames the 

 English for neglecting it. Two years afterwards, in 1653, 

 we find Blith referring to it as a French grass very little 

 known in England, but as having been sown on some of the 

 chalky uplands of Kent; and later on, in 1671, we find 

 another writer saying that " divers places in England 

 received great benefit from it." Its establishment appears, 

 therefore, to have been very gradual, a fact that may per- 

 haps be accounted for by the fact that though it thrives 

 excellently in the localities that are suitable to it, many 

 districts do not prove adapted to its cultivation, and the 

 wilder uplands where it thrives best are more removed from 

 the influence of new ideas. A small quantity of trefoil should 

 be mixed with the sainfoin seed to assist in making a crop for 

 the first year, as the latter is somewhat thin and feeble at 

 first, but when it is once well cultivated it can well stand 

 alone and rely on its own merits. Its common name is 

 French in its origin, being derived from the words sain and 

 foin, signifying wholesome hay. It was therefore, by some 

 old writers, called the SaiiiAui fatnuM, or the 



