326 HORTUS GRAMINEUS WOBURNENSIS. 



the nutritive powers of the herbage produced on the sandy soil is 

 greater. 



dr. qr. 



The nutritive matter afforded by sainfoin from a given 



space of a clayey loam, is - 8 



The nutritive matter afforded by the broad-leaved clover 



from an equal space of the same soil, is 45 



The nutritive matter afforded by sainfoin from a sili- 

 ceous sandy soil, is 7 0$ 



The superior value of sainfoin for soils on a porous or dry sub- 

 soil is therefore manifest. 



Sainfoin grows wild in all the chalky districts in England ; but 

 it was first introduced to English Farmers as a plant for cultivation 

 from Flanders and France, where it has been long cultivated. 

 Parkinson, in the year 1640, says, that it is " generally known to 

 be a singular food for cattle, causing them to give store of milk." 

 Worlidge, in his Mystery of Husbandry, &c. (1681), treats of 

 sainfoin at large : " In Wiltshire, in several places," says he, 

 " there are precedents of sainfoin that has been there twenty years 

 growing on poor land, and has so far improved the same, that from 

 a noble per acre, twenty acres together have been certainly worth 

 thirty shillings per acre, and yet continues in good proof." 

 These extracts shew the high opinion which was entertained of 

 this plant above one hundred years ago ; but this was, no doubt, 

 in a great measure owing to the small number of plants then known 

 for sowing in the farm. 



The experiments that have here been made on this plant were con- 

 fined to a clayey loam and a light siliceous soil. Upon these it was 

 evidently inferior to the broad-leaved and perennial red clover; 

 but on chalky and gravelly soils there have been abundant proofs 

 of the superior value of sainfoin. After the ample details of the 

 uses and cultivation of sainfoin, given in Mr. Young's Annals, it 

 will be difficult to add any thing new. It is a perennial plant, and 

 produces but little herbage the first year, and on that account 

 should not be sown on land that is intended to remain only two 

 years under grass. In Mr. Young's Annals we are informed, that 

 sainfoin is allowed on all hands to be an admirable improvement 

 on limestone rocks and chalk downs, which, in order to be culti- 

 vated to the greatest advantage, should be in this course, with no 

 more arable than is necessary for the change. Thus, if sainfoin 



