88 PEEMANENT AND TEMPOEARY PASTURES. 



preparation for wheat. But the method adopted in Berkshire, 

 Oxfordshire, Wiltshire, and Hampshire of putting down Sainfoin 

 alone for four or five years, has grave disadvantages. Gradually 

 the Sainfoin plant diminishes, and every form of vegetable 

 rubbish increases, until the land comes to be exceedingly foul. 

 Instead of sowing Sainfoin alone, to remain down more than 

 two years, I strongly urge its use as a predominant constituent 

 in a mixture of grasses and clovers for three or four years' ley. 

 The sowing of Sainfoin alone is an expensive, and more or less a 

 precarious proceeding. It is by no means certain to produce a 

 plant. But combined with strong growing grasses there is less 

 risk, and the grasses keep down weeds and prevent the growth 

 of couch and other pests which almost invariably overrun a pure 

 Sainfoin ley after the first two years. 



In the green state Sainfoin is quite free from the danger of 

 blowing cattle, and when made into hay it is an admirable and 

 nutritious food. But the making of Sainfoin hay is rather a 

 ticklish business, particularly in catching weather. Like Tri- 

 folium, the plant has a hollow stem, and when cut it is more 

 quickly deteriorated by wet than any of the clovers. 



There are two varieties, the common, and the giant or 

 double cut, the latter being the earlier and more rapid-growing 

 of the two, but decidedly less durable. 



CAEUM PETEOSELINUM, oe PETEOSELINUM SATIVUM 

 {Sheep's Parsley). 



This plant is frequently included in mixtures of grasses for 

 uplands and sheep downs. Sheep manifest a great fondness for 

 the herbage, which has been said to be a preventive of rot and 

 red-water in that animal. Hares will visit gardens for the sake of 

 the Parsley grown in them, and where this game is abundant 

 it may be worth while to sow patches in the covers. The seed 

 germinates so slowly that six or seven weeks may elapse before 

 a plant is visible. 



