36 The Grasses. [Jan., 



Botany of the northern states has one hundred and eighty-two 

 species; Elliott's Botany of South Carolina and Georgia has ona 

 hundred and sixty -two, and according to Torrey in the year 1831 

 there were known in North America three hundred and twenty- 

 nine species. The system of Roemer and Schultes published many 

 years since, contains eighteen hundred species, of which there are 

 growing seven hundred and ninety-nine species in the torrid zone, 

 and eleven hundred and forty-six in the temperate zone. The 

 Cyperacce and Jimcce, or the sedge grass and rush like tribes are 

 not enumerated among the foregoing, yet they are generally con- 

 sidered as grasses. There are about one hundred species grov.ing 

 in western New York, yet how few of them receive any attention 

 from the farmer. Our farmers evidently do not cultivate a suffi- 

 cient variety of grasses, rarely sowing any thing except timothy 

 (Phleum pratense,) and clover. In England where agriculture is 

 carried to great perfection, and fjom whence many of our im- 

 proved breeds of cattle and horses have been imported, great at- 

 tention is paid to the different varieties of grass. In laying down 

 fields for pasture, they generally select such as ripen their seeds 

 in succession. The Complete Grazier, a work published in Lon- 

 don, gives directions for seeding down meadows and pastures, 

 with the quantity of seed and kind proper for each variety of soil. 

 This work gives the following recipe for an acre of low land, 

 " meadow fox tail two pecks, meadow fescue^two pecks, rough 

 stalked poa two pecks, ray grass one peck, vernal grass one quart, 

 white clover two quarts, marl grass two quarts." To continue 

 our extracts from the same work, " in the laying down of land for 

 the purpose of forming a good meadow, greatly superior to the 

 generality of pastures, the late Mr. Curtis recommends the foUoM'- 

 ing grasses and two species of clover, to be mixed in the follow- 

 ing proportions: meadow fescue grass one pint, meadow fox tail 

 grass one pint, rough stalked meadow grass half pint, smooth 

 stalked meadow grass half pint, crested dog's tail half pint, of 

 sweet scented spring grass half pint, of white or dutch clover half 

 pint, of common or red clover half pint. These are to be mixed 

 together and about three bushels sown on an acre." The superi- 

 ority of the English stock must be owing to the manner in which 

 they are kept, and that is on a variety of food both summer and 

 v\ inter. It cannot be owing to climate since we have a more ge- 

 nial sky than they. If our farmers will devote more attention to 

 the cultivation of the different grasses for their stock, and see that 

 they have enough food varied as to kind, and then select the best 

 to breed from, there will soon be little necessity for importations. 

 Horses, cattle, and sheep, delight in a variety of food, and so well 

 aware of this are the farmers in many parts of Enrope, that in 

 fattening stock for the market, different kinds of food arc given 



