S6 On the Agriculture o/Engla7id, Manures, ^c. 



and profits of those crops are greatly diminished in con- 

 sequence of their management, and their grain and 

 other crops are deficient from the same cause. 



When Britons became agriculturists, the grasses 

 which had supplied their cattle while they were shep- 

 herds, were ploughed in proportion to the extent of 

 their cultivation, until it became necessary for art to 

 assist nature in the multiplication of grass grounds. 

 It is probable, that at that period, they introduced 

 the injudicious practice of forming pastures from seeds 

 indiscriminately gathered from hay lofts, without re- 

 flecting, that by this means they introduced late and 

 early, good and worthless plants, with all the interme- 

 diate qualities between those wide extremes, together 

 with innumerable weeds : and it appears strange, that 

 the enlightened agriculturists of that country should 

 still persist in the same mode, with little deviation, al- 

 though they are frequently disappointed in accomplish- 

 ing that object, after much labour has been expended, 

 and the income from the grounds are either lost, or 

 considerably curtailed ; and after all this expense, to 

 procure permanent pastures, they are frequently in- 

 debted to nature, aided by expensive extra manurings, 

 to cover their grounds with grasses ; some, after be- 

 ing frequently disappointed, have even encountered the 

 enormous expense of covering the ground with sods, 

 procured from lanes, road sides, and other places. 



Although the agriculture of Pennsylvania is in gene- 

 ral inferior to that of Great Britain, yet there are im- 

 provements in this country worthy their attention. The 

 Pennsylvania farmer selects his grass seeds from the 

 most approved plants : no unknown mixtures are ad- 



