3^ Culture of Savfoin. [June, 



those of clover. It is excellent horse hay. Sheep are very fond 

 of the finer parts of it, but will leave the larger stalks, which 

 should be led to the horses, and they will eat such food with avid- 

 ity. I have known working horses do exceedingly well on sheep 

 orts of the sanfoin, but if it had been blown over and left by other 

 horses, would not have touched it. It is good economy to feed 

 the sheep orts of any kind of hay to working horses. 1 have 

 known the sanfoin to have been mown nine and ten years in 

 succession, and produced a good crop every year without any 

 manure, and the altermarth is very thriving feed for sheep, and 

 produces excellent pasture. It will not do for milch cows; it 

 gives the butter a very bitter flavor, and makes it very unsaleable. 



It is pastured the last season, and then breast plowed, (or in 

 other words pared and burnt.) The sod, which is very full of 

 roots, is taken off with a breast plow, an instrument used by the 

 hand, and forced through by the thighs of the operator. An acre 

 per week is considered very good work for a man, if the sod is 

 very stiff, but I have known experienced hands plow an acre in 

 four days. 



This sod is taken off about half an inch to an inch thick, turned 

 over and left to dry. When sufficiently so as to burn, it is thrown 

 together and burnt; the abundance of ashes it produces is almost 

 incredible. They are plowed lightly in, (or what is termed in 

 England rishaulking, a term w^ell known there by old fashioned 

 farmers.^ This mode of plowing does not seem to be known in 

 America. It is a part of a furrow plowed and turned over into 

 the other part of the furrow, and laps the ashes up into it, for the 

 purpose of keeping them on the surface. But latterly the most 

 improved have thought it best to skin plow in preference to this 

 mode, that is plow lightly as possible the first time, cross plow 

 a little deeper ihe second time, well harrow and sow turneps on 

 the surface broadcast. I never saw better crops of turneps than 

 have been grown by this process, and the succeeding crops for 

 four or five years have been abundant. 



It will not do to sow sanfoin on the same soil again for twenty 

 years hence, or it will not flourish; this has been proved in re- 

 peated instances. 



I like to risbaidk land before winter comes on; it keeps it dry 

 through the wet season, and it will work much earlier in the spring 

 than land that is whole plowed, and it gives the frost a chance to 

 slack and pulverize it, and the dry winds in March to penetrate 

 it, which I think a very great advantage. 



I shall be pleased to answer any inquiries that may be made 

 through your paper at any time, if this article should be deemed 

 worthy of its pages. 



