34 PRACTICAL NOTES ON GRASSES AND GRASS GROWING. 
English seed. They are often persuaded to take a parcel 
which, on inquiry, will be found to come from Luxemburgh or 
elsewhere. But French sainfoin is, in our opinion, better 
than English, if the sample be free from burnet, English 
sainfoin being often contaminated with blubber grass. French 
trifolium also will be found better than English if the sample 
be fine. 1t comes best from the Beauce district, and the same 
may be said of lucerne which comes from Provence. 
A word as to mending inferior and unsatisfactory leys, and 
we will bring our remarks under this heading to a close. The 
following is a good rule: “Mend, but never plough up.” 
There will almost always be found some sort of a crop, even if 
it is scarcely discernible, and, should it be very bad, sow 12 lb. 
to 20 lb. of trifolium in September, and let the land rest, 
excepting, perhaps, a Cambridge roll be run over it. If you 
disturb the land you will in all probability destroy what few 
tender plants there may be. On cutting the trifolium in June, 
if there is no bottom plough it up and sow tares, and treat as 
before described. Should there be half a plant, sow a mixture 
of either red suckling, alsike, Italian ryegrass, and white 
suckling, according to circumstances, and hope for the best. 
If the ley be patchy, sow above the last-mentioned mixture 
a small spray of clover or trefoil, and, if treated as we have 
suggested, you will, in nine cases out of ten, be glad you did 
not destroy the ley, and by so doing put not only yourself, but 
the land also out of temper, thereby raising a source of 
irritation and disappointment, lasting until every thing has had 
time to be put in order again. 
A new ley should never be fed in the autumn, unless it 
is very long; even then it must not be fed hard, and only with 
cattle, as sheep and horses bite too close; and, remember, it is 
not what they eat, but the young plants they bruise and spoil, 
which so seriously impairs the spring vigour of the crop. It 
is a great disadvantage to have a young clover ley too vigorous 
