252 History of the English Landed Interest. 



much more tlian was usual with them, and his shepherd begged 

 him to change the diet. He persevered, however, and eventu- 

 ally called in a butcher, who found them fatter than the rest 

 of the flock which had been fed at large in the park.^ Mr. 

 John Searancke obtained the Society's gold medal, in 1766, for 

 cultivating thirty-seven acres with this crop ; but the result of 

 the experiment does not seem to have been reported.^ 



Sainfoin had, in 1770, also come into greater use, sparingly 

 in the east of England, more widely in the west. It was sown 

 with TulPs drill plough, and had been largely experimented 

 upon by Sir Digby Legard in Yorkshire.^ 



Lucerne was being extensively cultivated by gentlemen, 

 though the ordinary farmer still fought shy of it. It was 

 grown either by transplantation from the nursery, by drilling, 

 or by sowing broadcast.* 



Another instance where a public-spirited husbandman about 

 this period had conferred a most signal obligation on his 

 country by thus drawing attention to useful sheep feed was 

 that of Mr. Reynolds, of Adisham, in Kent. He obtained some 

 turnip seed from Holland, sowed it in the field, and soon dis- 

 tinguished a particular plant of a deeper green colour growing 

 up among the rest. He preserved it until it ripened its seed, 

 and again sowed a patch which this time yielded sufficient to test 

 its qualities as a winter food. Finding it quicker in growth, 

 and infinitely superior in frost-resisting qualities to the or- 

 dinary turnip, he, the following year, raised more plants by 

 means of the seed-bed, whence he transplanted them into the 

 field, and was so satisfied with his results that he forwarded 

 a sample to the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, etc. 

 The botanical members, at a loss for its true appellation, 

 called it the turnip-rooted cabbage, though its leaves do not 

 round in after the manner which distinguishes cabbage from 

 kale. It was found to be just that very species of plant which 

 would afford sheep a late bite in spring, and Mr. Reynolds fully 



' Gentleman'' s Magazine, Jan. 10, 1790. 

 ^ Young's Political Essays, Essay iii. p. 144. 

 =• Id. Ibid., p. 140. 

 ^ Id. IhhL, p. 141. 



