TRIALS 'WITH SAINFOIN i9i 



it is developed it is very productive and the hay is of su- 

 perior quality. It likes dry, calcareous soils which it is 

 said to enrich remarkably. It seems altogether unrea- 

 sonable to me that it should not find somewhere in Amer- 

 ica a congenial soil and climate. I have tried it in Utah 

 with only moderate success. I suggest that probably this 

 clover is only another instance of the necessity of inoc- 

 ulation. True, most soils in America are lime-deficient, 

 yet there are other soils in the West and Southwest that 

 have a considerable excess of lime in their composition 

 and are well drained. I have seen soils in Colorado, New 

 Mexico and Texas with from 4 per cent to 25 per cent of 

 carbonate of lime in their composition, surely enough to 

 satisfy even sainfoin. It is not worth while for the farm- 

 er to work with sainfoin before his experiment station 

 has shown him how to grow it, though I assuredly look 

 for it to come into use in America some day. There are 

 hills of limestone gravel in northern Illinois and south- 

 ern Wisconsin that should take it ; there are limestone 

 hills in Kentucky now growing sweet clover that might 

 take it, and then the vast areas of lime made soils of the 

 Southwest. I suggest to directors of experiment stations 

 that they secure from some source, perhaps from the 

 farms of France, soil in which good sainfoin is now grow- 

 ing, choose a dry plot of land, lime it very heavily with 

 carbonate of lime, and make serious effort to learn what 

 inoculated sainfoin will do in America. 



Quantity of Seed to Sow. In Europe it is common to 

 sow about 60 to 80 pounds of unhulled seed to the acre. 

 Clovers or alfalfa are sometimes sown with the sainfoin. 

 The seed can not push up through any great depth of 



