Chap. Vlir. OF S A I N-F O I N. 235 



feed of an acre or two of ground chancing to perifli by Its being 

 fown too late, he was agreeably furprifed at the end of three years, 

 to fee fome plants of fainfoin of an extraordinary fize difperfed here 

 and there, fo that there were about four plants in a yard fquare. 

 This part of his field yielded him double the quantity of grafs that 

 the reft of it did, where the feed had not perifhed, and where the 

 fainfoin was much better than in lands which had been fown in the 

 common way. 



Mr. Tull concludes from thence, that it is moft profitable to fow 

 fainfoin thin, that the roots of one plant may not hurt thofe of an- 

 other : and he thinks that they deceive themfelves who fow their 

 fainfoin very thick in hopes of reaping a more plentiful crop : be- 

 caufe that by fo doing they reduce their fainfoin to the fame condi- 

 tion it is in on the hills of Calabria,, near Croto, where it grows na- 

 turally without any culture, but fo low and fiiintcd, that one would 

 almoft wonder what could induce any one to think of cultivating 

 fo unpromifing a plant as it there feems to be. 



Mr. Tull fupports his opinion by an obfervation which it may not 

 be improper to mention. He fays, that a field of fainfoin, joining 

 to a piece of land which they were plowing up for corn, was greatly 

 damaged by the plough, which, breaking in upon the fainfoin, tore 

 up feveral plants : but that this part of the field yielded afterwards 

 more grals than any other. 



Mr. Tull thinks a gallon of good feed enough for an acre of land. 

 But this feed fliould be fo diftributed, that all the plants may be at 

 equal diftances. This cannot be done but with the drill-plough. 

 There is no fear of diminifliing the crop, by leffening the number 

 of the plants ; for one plant well cultivated will yield above half a 

 pound of hay ; and confequently if only 1 1 2 plants grow upon a 

 Iquare perch, and yield one with another only a quarter of a pound 

 each, they will produce after the rate of two tun to an acre. One 

 would not expeft (6 conliderable a return while the plants are vet 

 irnall and young : they do not covet the ground, and the field looks 

 as if the greateft part of it lay wafte : but when they have attained 

 their full growth, they ewer the whole furface. Another advantage 

 arif ng from the new hufbandry is, that if the fainfoin has been fown 

 early, it yields a crop the fecond year, equal -to the third year's crop 

 of that which is fo\vn in the common way. 



Ml . TuiJ dra\\ s, thefc conclufions i oin his experiments, i . When 

 fainfoin js Town with a def gn to cukiVttte it with the horfe-hoe, the 



beft 



