17u 



GRA 



GRA 



proceeding ; if a farmer wants to 

 lay down his land to ^rass, he ei- 

 ther takes his seeds indiscriminate- 

 ly from his own hay rick, or sends 

 to his neighbour for a supply. By 

 this means, besides a certain mix 

 ture of rubbish, which must neces- 

 sarily happen, it is not unlikely but 

 that which he intends for dry land, 

 may have come from moist, where 

 it grew naturally, and so on the 

 contrary : And the consequence 

 of this slovenly method frequently 

 is, that the ground, instead of being 

 covered in one year with a good 

 seed, is filled with weeds, not na- 

 tural to it, which would never have 

 sprung up, if they had not been 

 brought thither. This slovenly 

 practice may have prevailed when 

 Dr. Deane's book was first pub- 

 lished, but we believe it is now ex- 

 ploded. 



"Some say that if you manure 

 your ground well, good grasses will 

 come in of themselves. I own 

 they will. But the question is, 

 how long will it be before that hap- 

 pens ? And why will you be at the 

 expense of sowing what you must 

 afterwards try to kill ? Which must 

 be the case, so long as people sow 

 all kinds of rubbish under the name 

 of hay seeds. Others say it will be 

 better to have a mixture of different 

 seeds. I suppose this to be true. 

 But cannot a mixture be had, 

 though the seeds be gathered and 

 separated ? And is not a mixture 

 by choice more likely to be pro- 

 per than one by chance ? Especi- 

 ally after sufficient experience has 

 been had of the particular virtues 

 of each sort, and of the different 

 grounds where they will thrive 

 best? 



" It is said \if some, that weei3s 

 will come up along with the grass, 

 though what is called clean seed 

 be sowed. No doubt of it. Can 

 any one imagine that grass seeds 

 should be exempted from what 

 happens to every other kind of 

 seed ? But I will venture to say, 

 that not near the quantity of weeds 

 will spring up, as they imagine, if 

 the grass be sown thick." Stil- 

 lingjieel. 



It is undoubtedly best to sow 

 clean seed, which is known to be 

 suitable to the soil, wheti land is 

 laid down to grass. For though 

 grasses will gradually come in, no 

 great crop is to be expected the 

 tirst year, unless it be a crop of 

 rank and useless weeds. And he 

 that misses of the first year's crop, 

 loses much, as the longer the land 

 lies, the more compact, or bound, 

 it will become, and produce the 

 smaller crops. 



It would require a large volume 

 to describe all the kinds of grass 

 which are and might be cultivated 

 in the United States. Sir John 

 Sinclair observes, {Code of Agri- 

 culture, p. 219,) that " there are in 

 all 215 grasses properly so called, 

 which are cultivated in Great Bri- 

 tain." The Duke of Bedford in- 

 stituted a series of experiments, 

 to try the comparative merits and 

 value of a number of these grasses 

 to the amount of 97, the result of 

 which is annexed to Sir Humphrey 

 Davy's Agricultural Chemistry. — 

 According to these experiments, 

 tall fiscue grass, (feituca elatior,) 

 stands highest, as to the quantity of 

 nutritive matter afforded by the 

 whole crop, when cut at the time 



