The stalks of this plant, as has been said, are weak and flender, fo that they spread upon the furface of the ground, unless they are fupported by fome other vegetable. In ordinary foils, they do not grow to a great length, nor produce a great many flowers; but, in richer fields, the ftalks grow to a much greater length,-branch out a good deal, but carry few or no flowers or feeds; and, as I first took notice of it only on poor foils, it was purely with a view to pasture that I first refolved to cultivate it; and, with this intention, fowed it with my ordinary hay-feeds, expecting no material benefit from it till I defifted from cutting my field; but found myself agreeably disappointed, as it grew the first season as tall as my great-clover, and formed the finest hay I ever faw; it being scarce diftinguishable from Lucerne, but by the flenderness of the ftalk, and proportional fmallness of the leaf.

It

It is nearly allied to Lucerne in its botanical characters; and resembles that valuable plant in many other refpects. Like that, it is perennial, fends down a long root to a great depth in the foil, which is at first small, and gradually increases with age, till it at length becomes of a very confiderable fize; fo that it is several years after it is first sowed before it attains its full perfection: But, when it is once established, it probably remains there for a prodigious number of years in full vigour, and produces annually a great quantity of fodder. In autumn 1773, I cut the stalk from an old plant of it that grew in a very indifferent foil; and, after having dried it thoroughly, found that it weighed fourteen ounces and a half. Like Lucerne, it is never affected with the feverest droughts that we experience: But it does not refemble that plant in delicateness of constitution, as it thrives in the ftiffeft clays, and is able to

ftand

ftand its ground among grafs, or any other weeds.

As this plant only produces feeds in abundance upon poor hungry foils that could hardly afford nourishment to any other, and as the ftalks spread out close upon the surface of the ground, it seems to me, that the greatest bar to the cultivating thereof will be the difficulty of obtaining the feeds in abundance; as in these circumstances they must always be gathered by the hand.-But, as it is an abiding plant, those who have fuch foils as most stand in need of having plants of this fort fowed upon them, may be at a little trouble and expence to get them at once properly laid down with this grass, as it will be only once that they will need to do it. It is poffible, that future experience may discover fome easier way of procuring the feeds than hath as yet occurred to me.

The ftalks of this plant die down entirely in winter, and do not come up in the spring till

the

the same time that clover begins to advance ; fo that it can never be of ufe but as a summerpasture:-Neither does it advance very faft after it is cut down, or eat over, even in fummer. But the great clofenefs of the shoots may probably counterbalance that defect.

I have feen another fpecies of the aftragalus with an erect stalk, that naturally grows upon dampish foils; but have had no opportunity of making particular obfervations upon it; nor have as yet been able to procure any of its feeds.-It feems more likely to anfwer well for hay than this does.

The common yellow vetchling, Lathyrus pratenfis, or everlafting-tare, might likewife be on many occafions cultivated with profit by the farmer.-It grows with great luxu riance in ftiff clayey foils, and continues to yield annually, for any length of time, a great weight of forage, which is deemed to be of the very best quality. And, as it is equally fit for pasture or for hay, the farmer would

have it in his power to apply it to the one or the other of these uses, at any period that might best suit his convenience. It is likewife attended with this farther advantage, that, as it continues to grow with equal vigour in the end of fummer as in the beginning thereof, it would admit of being paftured upon in the fpring, till the middle, or even the end of May, should it be necessary, without endangering the lofs of the crop of hay; which cannot poffibly be done with rye-grafs, or any other plant usually cultivated by the farmer, except clover; which is equally unfit for early pasture or for hay.This plant would be the more valuable to the farmer, as it grows to the greatest perfection on fuch foils as are altogether unfit for producing fain-foin; the only plant hitherto cultivated that feems to poffefs qualities approaching to those of this one.

2

It must, however, be acknowledged, that the difficulty of procuring feeds of this plant