118 PRACTICAL NOTES ON GRASSES AND GRASS GROWING. 
for years when once it is established. Common sainfoin is 
usually fed until late in May, when it is shut up in order to 
secure the main crop of hay or the seed; after this it is of no 
further value. 
In order to obtain a heavy crop it must be planted in good 
soil. The hay is excellent, but unless made in bunches a 
large quantity of the leaf (its most valuable part) will be lost 
in the making. It is leguminous, and the following crops 
are consequentially benefited by succeeding it. Unless the 
grower has good reasons for believing it will stand, he will find 
the seed expensive, and it requires four bushels per acre in the 
husk, the normal cost being about five shillings a bushel. 
It is generally drilled either with, or immediately after, the 
crop of spring corn, and crossways to the corn. It should 
establish itself during the spring and summer, so its crop may be 
gathered during the following season. A prudent agriculturist 
would never destroy a sainfoin ley so long as a fair plant 
remained standing. Sometimes trefoil is mixed with sainfoin, 
but where the latter will stand, in our opinion, the only grass 
good enough to sow with it is lucerne. 
In appearance it is hardly possible to distinguish the giant 
from the common sainfoin seed. The climate of France is, 
more suitable to ripen it than that of England, and the 
samples which come from abroad are both good and cheap. 
It seems a controversial point whether the best samples are 
grown in England or abroad. In our opinion French giant 
sainfoin is better than English; but this is not so with regard 
to the common sainfoin, as it will not stand so long, nor is it so 
hardy as the home-grown seed. French samples are also most 
subject to burnet, and sometimes contain sainfoin dodder ; 
whilst on the other hand the English samples occasionally 
have a spray of “ blubber grass,’’ an obnoxious weed somewhat 
similar to Yorkshire fog or Holcus. 
