242 IN HIGH SUFFOLK 



chalk land the lovely sainfoin spreads its crimson flowers 

 over an ever-growing area ; for sainfoin hay is the best 

 of all food for producing milk, and is saved for the 

 ewes in lambing time, and for the dairy cows. Seven 

 years is the life allotted to a sainfoin " ley/' after which 

 it is ploughed up and used for other crops. Hardly 

 any sown pasture is so beautiful or so profitable as 

 this on soil which suits its growth. It gives two crops 

 in the year, and the hay can often be sold for 6 or 

 j an acre. The broad-leaved clover grows on most 

 soils, and though it stands for two years, is generally 

 ploughed in after the first year's cutting. For agri- 

 cultural chemists have discovered that the delicate 

 clover leaves gather in nitrates from the air, and so, 

 when ploughed into the ground, give food to the 

 young wheat-plant. " Field-hay," as the produce of 

 the rye-grass, sainfoin, clover, and trefoil is called, is 

 a new feature in the country. Its beauty is less refined, 

 bright though the masses look in early June ; and the 

 pleasure it gives is less. It is part of modern husbandry, 

 and lacks the poetry of the old. 



Half the beauty of the "haysel" has been lost since 

 the mowing-machine was invented, and the other 

 time-saving appliances of modern farming. For the 

 most picturesque sight in the cycle of rural toil was 

 to watch the mowers. But the steady rushing of the 

 steel through the falling grass, the rhythmic move- 

 ment of the mowers, as they advanced en echelon, right 

 foot foremost, down the meadow, and the ring of the 

 whetstones on the scythes, have almost given place to 



