50 Value of Burnet. 



burnet comes out of a fine green colour, while other hay, 

 equally well made, but without this plant, overheats, 

 and comes put quite brown. 



The anonymous author of a book on the improved 

 culture of the three principal grasses : — lucerne, sainfoin, 

 and burnet (G. Robinson, Paternoster Row, London, 

 1775), has much to say in favour of burnet. It may be 

 sown, he says, from February to August or September, 

 a fact of great value, as, in the event of the turnip crop 

 failing, the land may be sown with biimet, which will 

 give good feed in the early spring months, when it will 

 be found that an acre of burnet is equal to one of 

 turnips. The writer notices a curious circumstance 

 connected with this plant, namely, that though it grows 

 well in all light lands, it acquires from some lands a 

 peculiar quality which makes it so unpalatable to cattle 

 that they will not eat it. The writer, therefore, recom- 

 mends that a trial on a small scale should be made if the 

 plant is to be extensively cultivated. The author 

 mentions the drought-resisting power of burnet, and 

 shows that it continues to grow while other pastures are 

 burnt up. Cows are fond of it, and it much increases 

 the quantity and richness of milk and cream. He 

 notices the curative value of it in the case of sheep 

 afiiicted with rot. In one case given where the land was 

 gravelly and poor, burnet seed was sown with buck- 

 wheat, and some with summer vetches or tares ; that 

 sown with the buckwheat grew well, and after the buck- 

 wheat was mown, it spread and stood the winter very 

 well. The seed sown with the vetches grew well, but 

 was in some parts overshadowed by them. Burnet is an 

 evergreen which resists cold, heat, and drought better 

 than any other fodder plant, and is ready for use at all 

 times of year, winter as well as summer. Its great value 

 is in March, April, and part of May, when winter food is 

 exhausted, and pastures insufficiently available. If not 

 fed down too late in the autumn, but allowed to rise 

 to half a foot or more, it will lose nothing of this in 



