120 AGRICULTURE. 



* 



grows well in Europe as high as the 51st degree of 

 north latitude. A species of it is found growing 

 spontaneously in the Pays de Calais, which shows 

 itself earlier than the more common or Spanish spe- 

 cies. Its produce is less than that of lucerne ; but 

 the quality of its herbage, whether green or dry, is 

 better. Sheep are particularly fond of it. It affects 

 high, dry, naked, white, cretaceous soils ; amelio- 

 rates the condition of these, and holds them better 

 together than any other plant. The following ex- 

 tract may give both instruction and encouragement 

 to those who would cultivate this plant : " In Cala- 

 bria, sainfoin is sown upon wheat or other stubble, 

 which is then burned, and the ashes made to furnish 

 a covering for the grass-seed. In the spring, with- 

 out other care or culture, the field is found covered 

 thickly with sainfoin, and converted into a fine 

 meadow. This grass crop is cut and fed between 

 May and August, when the ground is ploughed for 

 grain, of which the crop is generally very abundant. 

 But the advantages of this husbandry do not end 

 here ; for, after the grain is harvested, the earth re- 

 sumes its covering of sainfoin, which, in this way, 

 is continued forty years and more, admitting every 

 second year a crop of fine wheat."* 3d. Like sain- 

 foin and lucerne, clover is of the leguminous family, 

 and, though less productive than the others, has 

 one advantage that gives it a decided preference, 

 viz., its growing well in a great variety of soils. In 

 gravel, in loam, in alluvial and calcareous earths, it 

 obes well ; and we have already seen that in poor 

 and sandy soils it doubles the income of those who 

 employ it, as well by increasing the quantity of for- 

 age, as by putting the ground into a state to yield 

 many and abundant future crops of grain. Still 

 there are soils, stiff, cold, and wet, in which it docs 

 not succeed, and in which it ought to give place to 



* Grimaldi on the agriculture of Calabria. 



