154 THE SAINFOIN CROI'. 



Southern Counties, gives details of its cultivation, and 

 recommends it strongly to the notice of all light -land 

 farmers. Sir J. Sinclair, in his Code of Agriculture, terms 

 it " one of the most valuable herbage plants we owe to 

 the bounty of Providence." 



The only species met with in cultivation in this country 

 is the Common Sainfoin Onobrychis 1 sativa of which 

 the botanical characters have just been described. A variety 

 differing but slightly from the Common was introduced 

 in 1834, under the name of 0. sativa bifera, from France, 

 where it is known as the Sainfoin a deux coupes. It ap- 

 pears to grow a little faster, and to flower somewhat 

 earlier than the Common, but has not superseded it to any 

 extent. More recently a large variety, to which the name 

 of "Giant Sainfoin" is given, has been introduced. The 

 price, however, of the seed is much higher than the old 

 sort, and has checked any very extensive trial of it. 



The sainfoin is a plant essentially suited to dry, light, 

 and shallow soils, particularly those of calcareous forma- 

 tions; in such it will probably give a more productive return 

 than could be obtained from any of our other cultivated 

 plants. It has, however, a considerable range of soils, and 

 will grow on almost any soil, provided lime be present, 

 and no stagnant water be met with. This is as fatal to 

 the healthy existence of sainfoin as of either lucerne or 

 clovers. The soils containing large proportions of clay are 

 unsuitable to its cultivation, besides which, soils of this 

 class can always be more profitably occupied in the culti- 

 vation of other crops. To the poorer and lighter class of 

 soils sainfoin is a valuable plant ; indeed, extensive tracts 

 of thin soils in the rounded hills of the chalk and oolite 

 formations, too bare and close to the rock to carry the 

 ordinary crops, have been brought into beneficial cultiva- 

 tion by being laid down in sainfoin for a course of years. 



1 From wot, an ass, and tyt, to bray asses being particularly fond of it. 



