2G0 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



cicncy in the home-growth of 15 percent, last year, 

 leaves the -supply of wool 23 per cent, short of that of 

 1859." 



There is great room for improvement both in growing 

 and preparing wool for English markets ; and some 

 useful hints have lately been thrown out on this sub- 

 ject by brokers. Many countries, particularly North 

 Africa, Turkey, Egypt, Russia, Portugal, and the East 

 Indies, possess breeds of sheep, the wool of which, 

 by the introduction of suitable rams, or by judicious 

 crossing with the best of what they already have, 

 might be vastly improved, and rendered adaptable for 



many additional purposes. Care should be taken to 

 eliminate those sheep whose white wool is spoiled by a 

 sprinkling of thick coloured hairs. The wool should 

 be sent to market more free of burrs, seeds, and filth; 

 and the matted, inferior, and coloured fleeces should be 

 packed separately from the good white ones. At the 

 same time an indiscriminate growth of long wool is not 

 at all desirable, for the climate and herbage of some 

 countries, which eminently favour the Merino and Mes- 

 tizo breeds, but that would prove altogether unsuitable 

 to a larger kind. 



THE GRASSES. 



Most practical subjects are capable of being 

 reduced into a very small compass, within which 

 the whole merit may be compressed and very 

 easily understood. Nature is grand in its pro- 

 jects, but simple in its operations, and delights to 

 exhibit its information to the easiest observance ; 

 careful in provision, its bounties are strictly appro- 

 priated; profuse in luxuriance, its largesses are 

 confined to use ; and when niggardly in economy, 

 its deficiencies are intended to convey the lessons 

 of benefit and advantage. Profusion and defi- 

 ciency are alike useful in marking the boundaries 

 of adoption and adaptation. 



A grass plant is very peculiarly distinguished 

 by a tubular and jointed culm, and by the 

 leaves sheathing the stem. The vegetable king- 

 dom does not contain a more numerous or impor- 

 tant order of plants, or any one that is more clear 

 and distinct, more definitely marked in the charac- 

 ter, or the habit more easily perceived. The value, 

 as affording grains for the use of man, and herb- 

 age for cattle, is well known. The farinaceous 

 albumen supplies the human race with the staff of 

 life, in wheat, rye, barley, oats, rice, and maize, 

 and forms a great part of the food of many birds 

 and small quadrupeds. The herbage is perpetu- 

 ally growing, is very tenacious of life, and easily 

 accommodated to almost every climate and situa- 

 tion ; affords to nature her most welcome clothing, 

 and the chief riches to the cultivator of the soil. 

 Many of the grasses are very gratefully aromatic, 

 but none are poisonous, if we except the slight 

 intoxicating quality attributed to the seeds of the 

 Lolium, in the species " temulentum." Nature 

 has most wonderfully provided for the propagation 

 of this class of vegetables ; one of the most useful 

 that is possessed by mankind. The seeds are 

 small, light, and easily transported from one place 

 to another ; the roots are creeping or fibrous, and 

 send forth many shoots, which quickly cover the 

 ground, and by the yearly decay of the stems and 

 leaves, they afford a constant supply of decompo- 

 sing matter in the earth for the nourishment of 

 future growth. "Wherever any appearance of earth 

 or vegetation can exist, some of these universal 

 inhabitants of the globe are found struggling into 

 life, both for the purpose of propagation, and for 

 supporting other members of the creation. Nature 



I has also protected them in various ways ; most of 

 them are perennial, and though the leaves be 



j cropped and destroyed, they are soon replaced ; 



j the creeping roots, though bruised and hurt, are 

 not destroyed, and the winter's cold and the 

 summer's drought are alike unable to extinguish 



I the principle of hfe. They are the most important 



■ division of the vegetable kingdom, and constitute 

 about one-sixth part of all the plants that are 

 known on our globe. 



The habits and appearance of grasses are at all 

 times sufliicient to distinguish them, independently 

 of the general characters they hold in the specific 

 arrangement of plants. The stalk and leaves are 

 so simple, and so like in the greater number of the 

 plants, that a mistake can scarcely happen in as- 

 certaining a member of the familj'', with but little 

 knowledge of the scientific system of distinction 

 and nomenclature ; the seeds and infloresence also 

 afford a distinguishing feature from the surround- 

 ing vegetables. Most of the family are herbaceous, 

 and very few plants rise to the hardness of wood ; 

 the useful grasses, strictly speaking, are wholly 

 herbaceous. The general character of the family, 

 however numerous the plants may be and distinct 

 from each other, mostly agrees in the following 

 particulars, the minor differences being sunk in 

 the general character : The stalk is simple and 

 unbranched. The stems or culms are cylindrical, 

 straight, tubular, and jointed ; roots fibrous and 

 capillary ; leaves alternate, quite entire^ mostly flat, 

 if rounded, not on the side next the stem. A leaf 

 rises from each joint, linear or lanceolate, marked 

 with lines parallel to the midrib or middle nerve. 

 The leaves sheath the stem for some distance, and 

 one arises from each knot, the sheath splitting 

 down to the joint, and crowned with aligula, which 

 closely embraces the stem in growing, seemingly 

 for the purpose of keeping out the water. The 

 glume is husky, single, or containing several 

 florets. The seed-cup resembles the husk, rarely 

 wanting, often of several valves, of which the outer 

 is awned. Seed, solitary, naked, often clothed, 

 with the inner valve of the cup attached. The 

 flowei s are in dense clusters, or spiked in a common 

 rachis, or panicled and concealed in the sheath of 

 the upper leaf, till they emerge to complete their 

 maturity. The seeds are farinaceous or mealy, and 



