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lees 
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hardy annuals; nearly all the others are hardy, 
erect, perennial-rooted herbs; and most have a 
height of about a foot, and carry either purple, 
pink, yellow, or white flowers. 
The indigenous or cultivated species, Onobry- 
chis sativa, called by Linneus Hedysarum onobry- 
chis, concentrates in itself the main interest of 
the genus, and commonly makes a complete mo- 
nopoly of the name, and at the same time occu- 
pies the rank of an important agricultural plant. 
It grows naturally on light chalky soils in vari- 
ous parts of England; yet is said to have been 
originally introduced as an agricultural plant 
from France. It formerly bore the popular 
English name of cock’s head ; but is now known 
among farmers only by its French name of sain- 
foin or saintfoin, signifying “holy hay.” Its 
roots are subfusiform and perennial, and are 
capable of penetrating to a very great depth; its 
stems are recumbent, yet not far from upright, 
and have commonly a length of two or three feet ; 
its leaves are pinnate and smooth; its leaflets 
amount to from 9 to 15 on each leaf, and are op- 
posite and acute ; its flower-stalks are axillary, 
ascending, and longer than the leaves; its flowers 
grow in dense tapering spikes at the top of the 
flower-stalks, and havea beautiful variegated pink 
colour, and bloom in June and July ; the wings of 
the flowers are about as long as the calyx; and 
the pods are erect and toothed at the margin and 
ribs. A variety called 0. s, d¢fera grows faster 
and blooms earlier than the normal plant. 
Sainfoin has long been cultivated in France 
and other parts of Continental Europe; and be- 
gan to be cultivated in Britain about the middle 
of the 17th century; and is now regarded as the 
most valuable leguminous forage plant on the 
dry, thin, chalky and gravelly soils of the South 
of England, and as at the same time peculiarly 
suitable for poor, dry, non-gramineous soils of 
other districts. It chiefly serves for hay; and 
thrives well on lands which naturally yield little 
grass, and are not fit for being constantly under 
tillage. But, in most respects, it so closely re- 
sembles lucern, in at once nature, qualities, and 
treatment, that very little requires to be said re- 
specting it different from what we have said re- 
specting that plant. See the article Lucrrn. 
Sainfoin requires a dry situation for its roots ; 
and is fond of calcareous action; and has the 
power of sending down its rootlets, through rub- 
ble or through the crevices of rocks, to the depth 
of 15 or 20 feet, in search of sufficient support or 
nourishment ; aad cannot long thrive in any 
soil whose surface becomes matted or even con- 
siderably occupied with grasses or spreading 
weeds. It luxuriates on almost any dry chalky 
soil, or on any open and poor land which has a cal- 
careous substratum, within a reachable depth ; 
but will not thrive in mere sands or gravels, un- 
less they receive a large artificial intermixture 
or dressing with lime; and has little or no re- 
pugnance to natural richness of soil, except in so 
nn re 
SAINFOIN. 
far as the free ranging of its roots may be hin- 
dered, or the growth of grasses and weeds en- 
couraged. 
The preparation for sainfoin ought not to com- 
prise any manuring, and should consist simply in ° 
thorough cleaning and in deep and minute pul- 
verization. It comes very appropriately at the 
close of an alternate rotation of seven or eight 
crops ; and it may be sown either broadcast or 
in drills——either alone or with a corn crop, in 
the same manner as the clovers and grasses. 
The broadcast sowing is preferable to the drill- 
ing. The seeds are large, and require to be more 
deeply covered than those of clover, and may be 
ploughed in with a very shallow furrow. About 
four bushels per acre are required for broadcast 
sowing ; and about three for drilling. A sowing 
with barley or other grain, to about half the 
amount of seed which would be requisite for a 
full crop of it, is much better than sowing the 
sainfoin alone ; for the corn shades the sainfoin 
and keeps it moist during the first summer, and 
at the same time is not thick enough to injure it 
by a crowding of the soil or by an undue abstrac- 
tion of nourishment. When broadcast sowing is 
preferred, the corn should be sown first, and 
once harrowed, and the sainfoin sown after and 
lightly rolled ; and when drill-sowing is preferred, 
the drills for the corn should run in one direc- 
tion, and those for the sainfoin in a cross direc- 
tion or at right angles. 
Sainfoin attains its full growth in about three 
years, and usually begins to decline on sandy or 
gravelly soils in seven or eight years, and on 
chalky soils in from eight to ten years. But 
though thenceforth losing vigour, it has been 
known, in a neglected state, to exist 50 years, 
and even nearly 100 years. It may also be pro- 
longed in vigour, and likewise rendered increas- | 
ingly luxuriant in its earlier years, by the judi- 
cious application of suitable top-dressings. On 
deep loamy soils, along the skirts of chalk hills, 
indeed, no top-dressing should be given; but on 
thinner and poorer and colder soils, a top-dressing 
of 5 bushels per acre of gypsum, or of 10 or 12 
bushels of peat ashes, or of 30 bushels of coal 
ashes, once a-year or once in two years, accord- 
ing to circumstances, will generally prove highly 
beneficial. The grand enemies to the duration 
of sainfvin are the grasses and the creeping weeds, 
which form a close turf and choke up the crop ; 
but these cannot be controlled any further than 
by the selection of a soil which is naturally un- 
favourable to them, or by the hoeing of a drilled 
crop in the next season after sowing. 
Sainfoin makes excellent hay ; and is chiefly 
valued for that purpose. It should be cut when 
in full bloom, and so managed as to retain, in its 
dried state, the natural hue and form of the 
flowers, and the clear full verdure of the stems 
and the leaves. It is treated, ina general way, 
in the same manner as other hay plants; but it — 
requires very particular care, and is specially 
