104 CULTIVATED GRASSES, n. 



The great ADVANTAGE OF SAINTFOIN, and 

 that which diitinguiflies it in a ftriking man- 

 ner from all other crops^ is that of its feeding 

 principally below the field of ordinary "vegeta- 

 tion : bringing up to the furface vegetable 

 matter, which, without it, wou!4 for ever 

 have lain ufelefs to agriculture ; and enrich- 

 ing the cultivator with treafures which, with- 

 out its afMancc, might as well have been 

 fituatcd at the earth's center *. While he is 

 annually reaping a crop of the moft nutriti- 

 ous herbage agriculture is at prefent acquaint- 

 ed with, his foil, ib. far from being exhauiled, 

 is in all probability gathering ftrength to en- 

 able it to throw out, in future, a fucceffion of 

 arable crops: befides the 'additional advan- 

 tage arifing from the quantity of manure 

 which he has been extracting from the bowels 

 of the earth, by twenty or thirty crops of 

 faintfoin. 



NATURAL 



* On the Mai ton fide of toe Vale, // hfaid, the roots 

 of faintfoin have been traced to the depth of fourteen 

 feet. I have fecn roots, which near the furface have 

 been nearly ag thick as an ordinary walking-cane. 



