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quality of milk, butter, and cheese, as well as the 

 quick fattening of depastured animals, is usually as- 

 cribed to the superior qualities of the land, yet it ap- 

 peared to botanists, as well as to many intelligent 

 farmers, that there really was much difference in the 

 nutritive properties of the various grasses ; and they 

 therefore (and very naturally) concluded, that if these 

 best sorts were known, collected, cultivated, and seed 

 saved from them in sufficient quantity, productive 

 permanent meadow or pasture might be created in 

 a few years without risk of disappointment. 



Many botanists had studied grasses with the sole 

 view of arranging them botanically. Among the 

 authors who have written descriptions and given 

 names to the species, Caspar Bauhin is one of the 

 earliest ; and within our own remembrance the names 

 of Cavanilles, Curtis, Schrader, Alton, Smith, Host, 

 Vahl, Withering, &c. have all added materially to 

 our stock of knowledge relative to this useful tribe of 

 plants. 



While these botanists were pursuing their studies, 

 glimpses of light, respecting the grasses, were from 

 time to time elicited and taken advantage of by 

 farmers, who, becoming slowly sensible of the bad 

 practice of trusting to the sweepings of hay-lofts for 

 their grass seeds, readily purchased pure seed, wher- 

 ever it was to be had. Ray-grass (lolium perenne) 

 was one of the first in the market, and this happened 

 chiefly from the ease with which the seed was col- 

 lected. Next we had the meadow cat's-tail {jphleum 

 pi'atcuse), and soon afterwards the cock's-foot (dactylis 

 g/o}?icrata), and some few others. 



