SAINFOIN. 



As a drink for horses, after a severe run or 

 burst in the field, sago gruel, consisting of 

 about a pound of the mucilage or jelly, com- 

 pletely dissolved in two or three gallons of 

 warm water, is found to be superior to any 

 other kind of drink. For cows, the jelly 

 should also be given in the shape of drink. 

 Sago jelly mixed with new milk forms an ex- 

 cellent food for calves. Dogs should have the 

 jelly poured over biscuit, bread, or potatoes. 

 To pigs sago should be administered in the shape 

 of drink, from 2 to 3 pounds being given to each 

 pig once a day ; and the jelly for fowls should 

 be in warm balls, mixed up with barley meal. 



Sago has been sometimes used as an ingre- 

 dient of household bread, in the proportion of 

 1 part of sago to 3 of wheaten flour. It forms 

 an excellent pudding for the convalescents 

 from acute diseases. It is only moderately nu- 

 tritious, consisting chiefly of starch ; yet it is 

 the bread, and may be termed the staff of life 

 of natives of the Molucca islands. 



SAINFOIN or SAINTFOIN (Hedysarum 

 onobrychis). The Bourgogne or Esparette of 

 the French. PI. 8, g. Having been first intro- 

 duced to the farmer from France, this plant 

 brought its French name of saint-foin along 

 with it; and cock's-head, by which it was be- 

 fore known as a native of England, is become 

 obsolete. The stems of sainfoin are recum- 

 bent, 2 or 3 feet in length ; leaves pinnate, 

 nearly smooth; flower-stalks axillary, ascend- 

 ing, longer than the leaves, each bearing a 

 dense tapering spike of handsome variegated 

 crimson flowers. The fruit is a legume, erect, 

 single-seeded, toothed at the margin and ribs. 

 Sainfoin is a well-known object of cultivation 

 as fodder for cattle, on dry, barren, especially 

 chalky or marly ground, in open situations. 

 From its not thriving well except the soil or 

 subsoil be calcareous, sainfoin is not generally 

 met with in England; it is most extensively 

 cultivated on the Cotswold Hills, and on the 

 chalk soils of Surrey, &c. Its nature, quali- 

 ties, and treatment are similar to those of Lc- 

 CERN, which see. 



SAINT JOHN'S-WORT. See JoauVWoHT. 



SAINT PETER'S -WORT. See Joa.Vs- 

 WORT. 



SALAD, CORN. See CORK SALAD. 



SALAL BERRY. A new fruit from the valley 

 of the Columbia river. It is about the size of 

 a common grape, of a dark purple colour, and 

 possesses a sweet and pleasant flavour. 



SALLOW. The common name of several 

 species of Salix, which, unlike those known 

 under the name of osiers, are not flexible, but 

 form large trees or rough bushes, which grow 

 in moist, marshy woods and hedges, in various 

 parts of England. Sallows generally yield the 

 best kind of charcoal for the manufacture of 

 gunpowder, though all the species of salix are 

 burnt for the preparation of this substance. 

 Sir J. E. Smith particularizes, in England, 

 nearly a dozen different native species of sal- 

 low. See OSIER and WILLOW. 



SALLOW-THORN (Hippophiie, from hippos, 

 a horse, and phao, to destroy ; in reference to 

 the supposed poisonous qualities of the seeds). 

 The species are mostly ornamental trees or 

 shrubs, growing in any common soil, and may 



SALT, COMMON. 



be readily increased by layers or cuttings of 

 the roots. The common sallow-thorn or sea- 

 buckthorn (H. rkamnoides) is a bushy, rigid 

 shrub, 5 feet or more in height, with hard 

 wood, and straight, spreading, leafy branches, 

 each terminating in a thorn. The shrub is a 

 native, being found growing wild on sandy 

 cliffs on the eastern coast of England. The 

 leaves are linear-lanceolate, scattered, decidu- 

 ous, 1 inch long, on short stalks, dark-green 

 on the upper side, minutely dotted, beautifully 

 silvery as well as scaly beneath. 



SALSIFY (Tragopogon porrifolius')* An or- 

 namental plant, which, when grown in the 

 kitchen garden, succeeds in any common soil. 

 It is sown and treated in the same manner as 

 carrots; the flavour of the root is mild and 

 sweetish. When properly cooked, it has a 

 flavour much resembling that of oysters, from 

 which it often goes by the name of oyster plant. 



SALSILLA (Edible alstrcemeria). A very 

 herbaceous plant, a native of Peru. Its roots 

 are eaten like the potato. It is cultivated in 

 the West Indies, and may answer well in many 

 parts of the United States. (Kenrick). 



SALT, COMMON, as a manure (Germ, salz,- 

 It. sale). This salt is a compound of chlorine 

 and a metal, the base of soda, called sodium 

 or, in chemical language, salt is a chloride of 

 sodium. It is too well known to require de- 

 scription ; but it may be proper to state that it 

 dissolves equally well in cold and in hot water. 



It would be, perhaps, difficult to name any 

 other substance in the catalogue of modern fer- 

 tilizers, whose powers have been so often and 

 so warmly disputed as common salt ; and for 

 this controversy many reasons may be assigned. 

 It has been generally employed with little scien- 

 tific accuracy, and in far too loose a manner 

 for any reliance to be placed upon the majority 

 of the reports which have been furnished to us ; 

 and for many years a prohibitory duty in Eng- 

 land rendered it inaccessible to the farmer 

 an impost which has not very long been re- 

 moved, and which yet was the occasion of a 

 great variety of blundering trials, miscalled ex- 

 periments. The duty on salt was, indeed, one 

 of long continuance. It originated as a war 

 tax, in the ninth year of the reign of William 

 III., and was not removed until after many 

 an arduous debate, in the end of that of George 

 III. The price of salt, in consequence of the 

 duty, was raised from 6rf. a bushel to more than 

 20*. ; and was, therefore, during the continu- 

 ance of the tax, too expensive a fertilizer to be 

 employed by the English farmer; and it was 

 only after being for a century and a half lost 

 to agriculture, that it was again presented, in. 

 1823, unshackled with duties, to the notice of 

 the agriculturist. During that long interval, 

 salt, as a manure, was known only in the tra- 

 ditions of the English farmers. Through these 

 they learned, that it was formerly used to kill 

 worms, and to destroy weeds ; that it cleansed 

 fallows, increased the produce of light, arable 

 soils, and was good to sweeten grass. These 

 reported advantages were rendered more pro- 

 bable by certain facts that had been forced, as 

 it were, upon their attention. The gardener 

 was well aware that the brine of the pickling- 

 tubs, when poured over his heaps of weeds, not 



967 



