DEDICATION. VJl 



portant branch of useful knowledge, which, unless my 

 fondness for a favourite study deceives me, is, to the 

 inhabitants, not of Britain only, but of $11 the countries 

 within the temperate zones, one of the most important 

 that has ever engaged their attention, I have as yet pro- 

 ceeded but a little way ; but I flatter myself that I have 

 developed enough to awaken the attention of other 

 observers of nature and lovers of agriculture, and to 

 point their observation to many of the topics which 

 court their inquiry. I shall esteem myself happy, if this 

 work may arouse a spirit of discussion and experiment, 

 in a field which so few have yet trodden, content to be 

 left the hindmost in the march of science, by all those, 

 whose superior zeal and intelligence shall outstrip me in 

 the contest of utility. And if I shall succeed in impress- 

 ing your mind with the importance of the subject, I feel 

 confident that both the admonition and the example of a 

 gentleman who deservedly ranks so high in the public 

 estimation as yourself, for the knowledge and love of 

 agriculture, and zeal for the interests of your country, 

 will impel numerous and able persons to employ their 

 intelligence and acuteness on this interesting, and as 

 yet almost untried pursuit. 



The success with which you have adopted, in your 

 own practice, the process of transplanting turf, is not 

 unconnected with, nor will it be superseded by, the 

 statements contained in the following sheets. On the 

 contrary, as it happens in most other sciences, so here 

 also, discoveries and improvements aid each other. A 

 sufficient combination of superior selected seeds adapted 

 to the soil, and excluding all the inferior and injurious 

 species to which such soil may be obnoxious, pro- 

 mises to furnish the most valuable nursery from which 

 meadows and pastures on similar soils can be multiplied 

 by transplanting turf. On the other hand, when a model 

 of superior grass land shall have been created on a small 



