60 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 
dies. In the spring, however, the rye will again come forth 
mixed with lucerne, will add much to the quantity on the ground, 
and prove a most excellent feed for cattle. The rye cut green in 
this way and before getting into seed will admit of being cut 
two or three times in the course of the season, with the lucerne 
before it decays. 
The kind of soil most suitable for this culture is a dry mellow 
loam, but a sandy or clay loam will also answer, provided it is 
not wet. In a favorable season, the lucerne may be cut the next 
fall after sowing. After the first season you may generally be- 
gin to cut green for cattle by the first of May, which saves your. 
young pasture and is in every respect a very great convenience, 
as hogs and every description of animals devour it with equal 
avidity. Backward as this season has been, I have been furnish- 
ing a copious supply every day to seven cattle, since the 5th of 
May. The seed can be procured at Thornburn’s or other seed 
stores in New York, at 40 to 50c per pound. 
The following notes on the culture of alfalfa and 
sainfoin are from a book called ‘‘ Practical Farmer’’ 
published in 1793 by John Spurrier and dedicated to 
Thomas Jefferson. Mr. Spurrier was a transplanted 
English farmer. It is curious to note how nearly 
he came to knowing how to grow each of these crops, 
and how vitally he failed to grasp the truth that 
these plants thrive on ‘‘gravels’’ when these gravels 
are composed of limestone pebbles, not necessarily 
when they do not! This quotation is presented 
through the courtesy of J. M. Westgate: 
Saintfoin took its name from the French; for the word Saint- 
foin, translated into English, is Holy-Hay, which name they gave 
it from its excellent nutritive quality. 
There may be more benefit reaped from this grass than any 
other; as you may get a very great crop in the most dryest land, 
on hills, gravels, sands, or even barren ground; and it will so 
improve all those lands in such an extraordinary manner that 
théy will bring great crops of any sort of grain after it. 
The stalks of the plant in poor land will be two feet high, and 
in rich land it will grow as high as six feet. It has tufts of red 
flowers, of three, fanr, or five incbes in length of the honey- 
suckle kind: they are so beautiful and sweet that 1 have seen 
