112 HOW TO GROW GOOD CLOVER. 



properties are greatly varied, and perhaps variable. 

 The Sennas are renowned for their medicinal pro- 

 perties, being in some kinds aromatic and purgative. 

 A powerful aroma is given off from the Melilots, 

 similar to that of the well-known sweet vernal grass 

 {Anthoxantlium odoratam), on which account it has 

 been recommended to mix a little of their seeds with 

 clovers, or to cultivate separate patches of either the 

 white or the yellow Melilot to place here and there, 

 sandwich-wise, in the clover hay-rick. 



In speaking of this matter of flavour in food for 

 cattle, we may here mention that the seed of one of 

 this order, which is now being extensively employed for 

 its flavouring principle, is the Eoenugrsec (Trigonella 

 f (£num-gr cecum) > which was formerly used in large 

 quantities by horse and cattle doctors as an ingredient 

 in drenches or drinks for horses, cows, and pigs. 

 Latterly, however, it has been still more largely 

 employed as a flavouring matter in the different kinds 

 of " Cattle Feeds."* 



Now, whether medicinal properties reside as a rule 

 in all of the order, it would perhaps be difficult to 

 determine ; but, as we sometimes find that certain 

 clover crops are accused of causing " scouring," there 

 is perhaps reason to conclude this, but that its 

 amount varies according to season, soil, and culti- 

 vation. 



* We have cultivated these seeds in England, and found them to 

 ripen very well, and if the flavouring of food be correct in principle, 

 the seeds might readily be ground with feeding stuffs, while the dried 

 plant could be mixed with hay and straw in chaff. 



