148 



Sainfoin Seed. 



[JUNE, 



root, sainfoin will persist and maintain its usefulness for a con- 

 siderable time, the limit in this country being, perhaps, from 

 four to seven years. It is sometimes sown instead of clover, 

 more particularly in the Eastern Counties, and after two or 

 three years it is ploughed up and the land afterwards laid 

 down to corn. 



Though sainfoin is scarcely ever sown on soils other than 

 those of a calcareous nature, the farmer can, as a rule, reckon 

 on a fairly successful crop, provided, as already indicated, that 

 the mechanical condition of the subsoil — which is more impor- 



FiG. 2.— Milled Sainfoin. (Magnified four diameters,) 



tant than the surface layer — is sufficiently porous to allow the 

 -roots to penetrate easily. 



. .Sainfoin grows to a height of to 2 J ft., and produces 

 numerous succulent branches with abundant foliage, bearing 

 many flowered spike-like racemes of flesh colour or rosy red ; the 

 compound.pinnate leaves, which have from six to twelve opposite 

 pairs of oblong leaflets and -an odd terminal one, are sufficiently 

 distinctive to aid one in recognising the plant. ... 



: During the early stages of growth, continued drought affects 

 sainfoin but little, while cold, wet suri^oundings and frost are 

 injurious. As a general rule,- the maximum yield is; obtained 

 the third year after sowing. There are two varieties in ' cul- 



