286 TIORTUS GRAMINEUS WOBURNENSIS. 



caused by the removal of the turf, being very inconvenient 

 to the feet in riding or walking over the ground, they had 

 to be filled up with mould, and afterward sown with grass- 

 seeds. 



The valuable permanent pasture grasses cannot therefore 

 be said to be propagated or increased on tlie farm by this 

 process of transplanting turf, but that they are merely 

 removed from one field to another. 



To bring forward to the reader facts capable of easy 

 demonstration, and which cannot therefore mislead, has been 

 a principal object of the writer of these pages. 



Had the seeds of those different species of grasses which 

 composed the turf used in these instances of transplanting, 

 been sown on a separate part of the same field (or on a soil 

 of the like nature as that on which the turf was transplanted), 

 and had a dressing of rich mould, equal to that conveyed 

 and applied to the transplanted portion by the turf, been 

 given to the land sown down with these seeds ; then the 

 comparative value of the two modes of converting tillage 

 land into permanent pasture would have been tried under 

 equal circumstances. But it is evident, that if we plant 

 ten, fifteen, or twenty different species of the proper grasses 

 and clover in one field, and on another field or soil of the 

 same nature sow the seeds of only one or two species of 

 grasses and clover, it will surely appear unreasonable, if not 

 absurd, to expect that the comparative value of these two 

 modes of culture can be determined by the results of trials 

 made under such unequal circumstances. Had the seeds of 

 all these proper permanent pasture grasses, and of which the 

 richest and most fattening pastures were shown to be con- 

 stituted, been at the command of those eminent agricul- 

 turists who have put in practice this mode of converting 

 tillage-land into pasture, the comparative value between 

 planting the turf, and sowing the seeds of grasses, would 

 have been satisfactorily determined, and the superior advan- 

 tages accruing to the farm from the propagation and extended 

 increase of the valuable permanent pasture grasses by seed, 

 would then have been demonstrated. But, in the absence of 

 these essential seeds from the market, at a price sufficiently low 



