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Saintfoin, or sainfoin, the name given by the French, and continued by us to a species of plant, frequently used for the food of Cattle, either fresh or dried; it is called holy hay, or wholesome hay, from its excellent nutritive quality. The stalk of the plant are commonly about two feet long, but they grow sometimes to five or six feet, and it has tufts of red flowers of three, four, or five inches in length.

It will make forty times greater increase in poor land the common turf; arising from its long perpendicular root, which is of the kind called taproots, that sinks to a great depth to attract its nourishment. The length of this root is scarcely to be credited but by those who have seen it, it is frequently drawn out of the ground to the length of twelve or fourteen feet, but it is said to be of ten thirty feet or more in length.

It always succeeds where its roots run deep, and produces the best crops upon land where there is no hard under soil to obstruct this passage. An under soil of clay by retaining the water and chilling the roots may kill these plants.

The best way of sowing it is in drills, the seed should not be covered with more than half an inch of soil, about a bushel of seed to an Acre is the proper calculation if the Seed be good; it should be sowed early in the spring, and not with Corn

The method of knowing whether the Seed is good, is by sowing a certain number of the seeds and seeing how many plants are produced by them. The external signs of the Seed being good are, that catchword the /catchword