Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/395

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month of June following ; and though March be frofty the young plants feldom fuffer by it. This fhews, that this plant is naturally a quick grower; but the farmers ufually plant it on poor or cold land, and give it too little culture, which makes it backward, and flow of growth with them. The poor land ufually allotted to this plant alfo makes it gene- rally yield but one crop a year, but on a rich land it will yield two very good crops annually, with a moderate fhare of culture and management.

The farmer who expects to make a profit of this plant muft hot expea a good crop the firft year. Nothing is fo injurious to faint foin as its ftanding too thick ; if it be fown lb thick as to cover the ground the firft fummer, the plants will ftarve one another for ever after ; but if the owner will be con- tent to place them fo thinly as to have but a fmall crop the firft year, they will increafe prodigioufly, and every fucceeding crop will be better and better. When faint foin is well hoed, it will grow as much in a fortnight as it would other- wife do in fix weeks ; and this quick growing is of advan- tage to it every way, not only making the plants larger, but of better nourimment to the cattle, whether they are eaten green or made into hay.

The proper diftance to drill this plant for the horfehoing hufbandry is at double rows, with eight inch partitions be- tween them, and thirty inch intervals between every two and two. Thefe intervals need only be hoed alternately, leaving every other interval for making the hay on. This method of hoing is of vaft advantage, and poor land by means of it will always produce two crops in a year. The land is always to be perfectly cleared of grafs before the fowing the faint foin y and the lumps of earth carefully broken. But no harrowing is to be allowed after it is drilled, for that would bury it ; and it is not proper to roll it at all, un'.efs for the fake of barley, when they are fown together ; and when that is done, it fhould be with a light roller and in dry weather. This fhould be done lengthwife of the rows, and as foon as it is drilled ; if it be not done at this time, it is beft to ftay three weeks before it is done, that the necks of the young faint foin may not be broken. No cattle are to be fuffered to come in the firft winter upon the faint fain, after the corn is cut, among which it was fown. Their feet would injure it by treading the ground hard, as much as their mouths, by cropping it, and it would never come to good. Sheep fhould not be fuffered to come at it even the following fummer and winter. One acre of drilled faint foin, considering the difference of the quantity and goodnefs of the crop, is worth two acres of fown faint foin on the fame land, though the expence of drilling be twenty times lefs than that of fowing. The firft winter is the time to lay on manure after the corn is reaped off. Pot-afties, or the like, are very proper, and a fmall quantity of them will do, as there are at this time no other plants to partake of the benefit, but the young crop has it all ; and the young plants being thus made ftrong at firft, will continue fo, and be long the better for it. It is obferved, however, that in the drilling and horfe- hoing way there is no neceffity for any manure at all. Some farmers fow eight or ten bufhels of the feed of faint foin to an acre along with their corn, with intent that it fhould kill all the other weeds ; but the confequence is, that the plants ftand clofe, and ftarve one another, and are no bigger than where the plant grows wild on the hills in Ca- labria, where it is fo fmall and feemingly defpicable a plant, that it feems a wonder that .any body could be tempted to think of cultivating it : yet, when rightly managed, it feems capable of being as ufeful a plant as any in the world. Where thefe plants ftand fo thick they draw out all the nou- rifhment from the ground, in a few firft years, and foon die, though manured ever fo carefully. Six or feven years feems their greateft duration ; whereas, when the feed is drilled in, and the plants are horfehoed, they will be a . ftrong and vigorous as ever, at thirty years {landing. Some people who have turned their thoughts to hufbandry have been of opinion, that the cytifus would fucceed better with us than the faint foin ; it is probable enough that it would grow well ; but the labour of fheering it, would with us, where the pay of fervants is fo dear, run away with the greateft part of the profits of the crop.

Lucerne is another thing which many have thought of in- troducing among us in the place of faint foin, but it requires fo much care to fuit it with a proper foil, that whatever are the profits of it, it never can be fo general as faint foin. TulPs Horfehoing Hufbandry, p. 76. feq. Saint foin fuccceds beft alfo in high grounds, which is a great advantage in the article of making it into hay, as it has greatly more advantage of the fun, and lefs to fear of mif- chief from wet than grafs which grows in low grounds. On the high grounds the wind will dry more in an hour than it will in meadows that lie low in a whole day ; and often the crops of faint foin make very good hay in the fame feafons in which all the grafs hay is utterly fpoiled. The fun, on the high grounds, has alfo a more benign influence and fends off the dew there two hours earlier .in the morn- Svppl. Vol. II.

ing, and holds it up as much longer in the evening j hj thefe advantages the faint foin has more time to dry, and is made with half the expence of common hay. All kinds of hay differ greatly in their goodnefs, according to the manner in which they are made, hut the hay of faint foin differ? more than all.

There are properly four kinds of the faint fmn hay, differing according to the times of cutting them. Thefe are firft, the virgin hay ; fecondly, the bloffomed hay ; thirdly, the full grown hay ; and fourthly, the thrafhed hay. The firft of thefe, or virgin hay; of faint fain, is the beft of all, and ex- cepting lucerne has not its equal in the world. The faint foin for this hay muft be cut before it begins to bloflom ; for when it ftands till full blown, the molt volatile fpirituous and nutritive parts of its juices are fpent on the generation; and this being done at once,, the fan is greatly depauperated, and the plant can never afterwards recover the ftrength, vi- gour, and nutritive qualities it had at that time. The exact time of cutting this is, when a few of the bloflbms, which are forwarder than the reft, are beginning to look red. Saint foin cut in this ftate, even though the weather prove bad, may be made up in fmall ricks, and a chaff bafket drawn in the middle of each ; this cafy care will pre- vent it from firing j and though the colour be a little altered* it will be as good and nouiifhing, as if made at the moft fa- vourable feafon. Working ftone-horfes have been kept fat the Whole winter on this hay alone without corn, and they are fo fond of it that they will refufe beans and oats mixed with chaff in the common way for it.

Sheep will alfo be fatted in pens in winter with only this hay and water better than with pea fe, oats, and the like; and if the hay be weighed to them, and the whole expence and profit computed, the clear profit will be found to amount to four pounds a tun. Thefe creatures make no waftc in this way of feeding, but eat up every morfel of the ftalksj though ever fo thick, for they are always brittle, and are as well tafted as the reft.

The bloflom hay is very beautiful to die eye, and of a very fweet fmell, but it does not fatten the fheep as the virgin hay does, nor can working horfes be kept fat upon this without an admixture of fome corn.

The land ought to be well tilled for the virgin hay ; for if it ftand on a poor land, without much culture, it will not be above four or five inches long before it flowers, and will therefore yield but a poor quantity, and will fpring up again, but very flowly, for another crop ; but when on good land and well tilled, it will yield at this time two or three tun to an acre, and will fpring up immediately very ftrong for a fecond crop.

This virgin hay is feldom fold, it being worth a much greater price than the common, and being ufually kept by the farmer for his own ufe. Id. Ibid.

Befide the advantage the farmer makes of this plant, as well for hay as for the feeding his cattle, there is a confiderable" profit to be made by felling the feed of it when properly managed.

The owner of a land of faint foin has three chances for the making his hay ; fince this may be done either when it is in the leaf, or in the bloom, or when full grown. If the weather fhould prove unfavourable all this time, he may ftill referve the crop for feed, and for thrafhed hay, to his no fmall advantage. The ordinary crop of feed from one acre is fufheient to plant a hundred acres in the way of horfehoing hufbandry ; but as this is hot yet univerfally prac- tifed, there is a fuflicicnt demand for what feed a few who praetife it can fpare.

But befide the ufe of faint foin feed in fowing for new crops, it is alfo an excellent provender for horfes ; and thofe, in general, who have tried it, affirm, that one bufhel of it will go as far as a bufhel and a quarter of oats. When this feed is well cured, it is extremely fweet, and all forts of cattle are fond of it : hogs will eat it and be fattened very well by it. But the goodnefs of the feed, and of the remaining hay, from out of which it is thrafhed, depends very much up- on the manner of the managing of them. When the thrafhed hay has been kept dry, it is found to be better food for horfes than common grafs hay ; and when cut fmall with an engine it is found as good as chaff" for any cattle. It requires fome fkill to know the time at which the faint foin fhould be cut for feed. The feeds never ripen all at once. The flowers grow in fpikes, and begin opening at the bottom, from thence gradually opening to the top. It is feveral days be- fore the whole fuccefnon of flowers are blown, and the feed ripens in the fame manner, fo that the lower part of the ear has ripe feed many days before the top ; and, in confe- quence, if the farmer ftays till the top feeds are quite ripe, the lower ones will be all fhed and loft.

The propereft time to cut it is when the greateft part of the feed is ripe, the top part beginning to be full and the bottom full ripe. The kernel or feed is bluifli, and the hulk brownifh when ripe. The feeds and hulks are green for fome time after the flowers are fallen, and it is better to cut the plant while it ia thus, than to let it ftand too long ; for O o the