Book VI. SAINTFOIN. 811 



these cannot be had. They should be applied so as to form a thin, even, regular dressing over the' whole 

 surface of the crop. In this view soot has also been found of great utility when spread evenly over such 

 leys about the beginning of January, in the proportion of about twenty-five or thirty bushels to the 

 statute acre. And malt-dust has been employed in the same way with great success and advantage, as 

 shown by Bannister in his Synopsis of Husbandry. And it is supposed tiiat where those sorts ot top- 

 dressings can be applied every third or fourth year, the saintfoin crops, when well established in the 

 soils, may be preserved in a state of vigorous growth for ten or filleen years, or more, and the land 

 be considerably improved by the roots striking so deeply into it. 



5052. In taking and using the saintfoin crop, the same practices may be followed as 

 in taking clover: it may be mown for soiling, or hay, or seed; and eaten on the spot 

 by tethering, hurdling, or common pasturing. In making it into hay it is cut immedi- 

 ately on its coming into full blossom, and as it remains but a short time in this state, as 

 much expedition as possible should be employed both in mowing and making the produce 

 into hay. It is remarked by the author of The Synojms of Husbandry, who resides ia 

 a district where the culture of saintfoin is frequent, tlmt of all other hay plants, it 

 requires the least pains in making ; when the season is favorable, the hay-makers may 

 follow the scythe, and having turned over the swaths, throw them into wind rows the 

 succeeding day after the crop is mown, when it may be immediately formed into cocks, 

 and the whole crop be fit for carting in a week after it is mown ; and though it may 

 appear very green, and the stack when made take on or acquire a considerable degree of 

 heat, there is no danger to be apprehended, provided the weather has been fair during 

 the hay-making ; as it is so far from taking harm by heating in the stack, that the con- 

 trary state is the most to be feared ; and for this reason great care is necessary not to 

 suffer the fodder to continue long either in the swath or in cocks, lest the sun and 

 wind should dry it up too fast, and by exhaling its juices prevent the heating in the 

 stack, and thereby render it of little value. In order to preserve its succulence, in some 

 places they put a number of these cocks together, so as to form large cocks of a size to 

 contain a load in each, and finish the stacks out of the cocks. And it is likewise a prac- 

 tice with many farmers, where the crop is slight, to turn the swaths, and then run them 

 into cocks with a three-pronged barley fork, following with a wooden dew-rake, the head 

 of which is of suflScient width to cover the ground occupied by three or ibur swaths, in 

 this manner proceeding with the utmost dispatch, saving a deal of labor and expense ia 

 the business. 



5053. In regard to the frequency of cutting saintfoin, it is probable that on the 

 thinner sorts of soils it can seldom be done more than once ; but on those of the deeper 

 sorts two crops may sometimes be taken, in the same manner as with clover, care being 

 taken in these cases, that the future growth of the plants be not injured by this 

 means. 



5054. The usuM duration of saintfoin, in a profitable state, is from eight to ten years. 

 It usually attains its perfect growth in about three years, and begins to decline towards 

 the eighth or tenth on calcareous soils, and about the seventh and eighth on gravels. 

 There are instances, however, of fields of saintfoin, which had been neglected and left to 

 run into pasture, in which plants have been found upwards of fifty years from the time of 

 sowing. It has beep cultivated upwards of a century on the Cotswold hills, and there 

 roots of it have been traced down into stone quarries from ten to twenty feet in length, and 

 in Germany Von Thaer found them attain the length of sixteen feet. In general the great 

 enemy to the endurance of saintfoin is the grass which accumulates, and forms a close 

 turf on the surface, and thus chokes up the plant. 



5055. The quantity of produce on a medium of soils and cultivation, may probably be 

 estimated at from about one and a half to two tons the acre. And on the poorer and 

 thinner staple sorts of land, it will perhaps seldom afford less than from a ton to a ton and 

 a half on the acre. 



5056. The nutritive products of saintfoin are the same as clover ; viz. 3^, being 1^ 

 per cent, more than those of lucern. 



5057. In saving seed from saintfoin, it should remain on the land till the husks become of a somewhat 

 brownish color, and the seeds are perfectly plump and firm, as by these means they will not only be better 

 in their quality, but be in less danger of being injured in the field from the very siiort time that it will be 

 necessary for them to remain, and also less in danger of being hurt by heating when laid up for future 

 use. It has been stated, that it requires some experience to know of what degree of ripeness it is best to 

 cut the seeded saintfoin ; because all its seeds do not ripen at the same time. Some ears blossom before 

 others ; every ear begins blossoming at its lower part, and continues to blow gradually upwards for many 

 days ; so that before the flower is gone off at the top, the seeds are almost mature at the bottom. By this 

 means, if the cutting be deferred till the top-seeds are quite ripe, the lower, which are the best, would 

 shed and be lost. 



5058. The best time to cut it is when the greatest part of the seed is well filled, the first blown ripe, and 

 the last blown beginning to be full. The unripe seeds will ripen after cutting, and be, in all respects, as 

 good as those that were ripe before. Some, for want of observing this, have suffered their saintfoin 

 seal to stand till all of it has shed, and been lost in cutting. Saintfoin should never be cut in 

 the heat of the day, while the sun shines out ; for then much, even of the unripe seed, will shed 

 in mowing. The right time for this work is the morning or evening, when the dew has rendered 

 the plants supple. When thq weather is fine and clear, the saintfoin will soon dry sufficiently in the 

 swaths, without turning them ; but if any rain has fallen, and there is a necessity for turning them, 

 it should be done very gently while they are moist, and not two swaths together, as in the other hay 

 made of saintfoin before it has seeded. If the swaths are turned with the handle of the rake, it is best 

 t raise up the ear-sides first, and let the stub-side rest on the ground in turning j but if it is done with 



