QQ . BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



brought to the greatest degree of perfection. Doubtless grasses 

 might be improved by a proper course of culture as well as fruits 

 and blooded stock. New and peculiar varieties might be produced, 

 suited to different purposes, combining the excellencies of two or 

 more species, and thus adding largely to the value of our pastures 

 and meadows. This improvement would also extend to the stock 

 fed upon the improved grasses, yielding us a better article of beef, 

 butter, &c. Loudon, in his Encyclopedia of Agriculture, relates 

 that the introduction into the island of Jamaica of a grass from 

 Guinea, (Panicum polygonatum,) as food for birds, has been the 

 cause of the increase of horned cattle in that island, until it has a 

 better supply, both for the butcher and planter, than almost any 

 other country. Few markets in Europe furnish beef of better qual- 

 ity and at a cheaper rate than is now done by the people of Jamai- 

 ca." * 



A very promising field of discovery is here open to the diligent, 

 patient and interested observer, whose labors may be rewarded by 

 acquisitions of inestimable value to the agricultural interests of the 

 country. 



Before commencing my remarks on the grasses, viewed simply as 

 forage plants yielding a crop of hay, it has seemed to me, that as 

 this report is intended for general circulation among farmers and 

 farmers' sons, there may be many, especially among the latter, who 

 would be glad to learn something of their natural history, their 

 structure, and of the means of distinguishing them accurately one 

 from another, who yet have no ready means of access to works on 

 botany for this purpose ; and that for such persons, a few pages 

 devoted to this object might be highly useful in assisting them to 

 observe, and in exciting a desire for minute and extensive knowledge 

 which would lead to study and to the procuring of slich assistance 

 as would be required ; and for this reason are the subjoined remarks 

 added. 



The first division in the vegetable kingdom, made by botanists, is 

 into Flowering plants, called PiiiENGGAMiA, (a term derived from two 

 Greek words significant of the fact,) which produce flowers, and also 

 seeds which contain in embryo new plants of the same species; and 



♦ Lapham on the grasses of Wisconsin. 



