154 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



April 



ful, or command om- admiration in any greater de- 

 gree than that exhibited in many other things, — 

 yet a more simple and natural explanation of the 

 fact would be, that these flowers possess a flavor, of 

 some pungent sort, which the animal feeding does 

 not relish. 



"We have said that cotton is a ci\ilizer — it would, 

 indeed, be difficult to estimate or appreciate, the 

 blessings it confers on mankind. It not only com- 

 prises the clothing of vast numbers, some of whom 

 would wander naked without it, but it enters into 

 nearly all the domestic articles we use. It shows 

 the fair jjage of the book we read, or gives us the 

 paper on which we write ; makes a part of the bed 

 on which we sleep or the carpet on which we tread ; 

 is a part of the stock used by the tailor, the book- 

 binder, cabinet and shoe-maker and carpenter. It 

 protects the hay of the farmer, encloses his wheat, 

 flour and other products in sacks, and gives wings 

 to commerce to waft them to the waiting nations of 

 the world ! Cotton is, also, a staple article in our 

 manufactories, and gives employment to thousands 

 of the sons and daughters of New England, It 

 does not only civilize — it has refined and elevated 

 civiUzation itself, and given it a thousand forms of 

 the beautiful while it has supplied our wants ; it is 

 the utile dulci, "the useful with the pleasant," and 

 its era of general introduc-tion will be marked in 

 the annals of the world. Unlike the grasses, how- 

 ever, it does not flourish except under certain de- 

 grees of temperature, beyond whose limits it is cul- 

 tivated in vain. 



Rice is another article of great value, and like 

 cotton, enters largely into our exports, amounting, 

 sometimes, to nearly four millions of dollars in a 

 single year. It is admirably adapted as sustenance 

 to the human system, affording a healthful propor- 

 tion of nutritive matter to the bulk required. It 

 may be easily and long preserved, and annually 

 feeds its millions, many of whom eat but little be- 

 side. But, like cotton, this article can never be- 

 come one of general culture, as it requires a high 

 temperature throughout its growth, and to be 

 grown on alluml soils, not only irrigated, but 

 flooded for periods of considerable length. 



Until lately, these two articles, cotton and rice, 

 have been prominent in our tables of exports, and 

 the nation believed that they were the chief products 

 of our agricultural industry ; that they gave us 

 credit and character abroad, and fed us, or propelled 

 the looms in our manufactming districts at home. 

 We mention these, particularly, because the pohti- 

 cal economist seems never to have investigated and 

 compared some other leading crops with them, and 

 to afford opportunity for a partial comparison 

 now. 



On reference to the last Census we find the hay 

 crop of the United States for 1840, set down at 

 10,248,108 tons; in 1850, it was 14,000,000 tons ; 



in 1855, it would undoubtedly reach 15,000,000 

 tons, and at ten dollars a ton, would be $150,000,- 

 000. The cotton crop of 1853 is valued at $128,- 

 000,000. The hay crop of Massachusetts in 1850, at 

 $15 a ton, amounted to nearly ten millions of dol- 

 lars, while the cotton crop of South Carolina at 4 cts. 

 a pound, was less than two and a half milHon. We be- 

 lieve the corn and grass crops of Massachusetts will 

 equal in value any two leading crops of any of the 

 Southern States, leaving our vast mechanical, man- 

 ufactupng and artistic products out of the question, 

 in an estimate of the results of our industrial pur- 

 suits. 



Compared with other crops, very little has been 

 wi-itten or said in relation to the grass crop. We 

 know not their number or names, or but that among 

 those indigenous to our soils there maybe those far 

 better than our herds-grass, red-top, or clovers. In 

 England, there are two hundred and fifteen varieties 

 well known, named, and cultivated. With us a 

 dozen varieties, perhaps, would exhaust our list ; 

 and yet some think there is no more room for inves- 

 tigation and for more accurate knowledge of the 

 things around us ; that hard hand-work is better 

 and more profitable than seeking after new things 

 by head-work. 



Who knows but that in our fields, or on the way- 

 side, trampled on and despised of men, or, perhaps 

 all unknown, there is an unobtrusive plant, spring- 

 ing up, blossoming and struggHng from year to 

 year for notice and for a firmer hold, — but as often 

 sought and eagerly fed off by the grazing animal 

 who only knows how to appreciate it ? 



Like the potato, as large as walnuts in its native 

 state, or the peach, bitter and dry and offensive, or 

 the pear, with its hard, woody flesh, or the apple 

 tree, with its thorns, so this humble plant may only 

 want the fostering care of man to outvie the beautiful 

 purple bloom of the herds-grass heads, or the car- 

 mine of the gracefully tasselled red-top,— and yield 

 in nutritive matter more than either of these or the 

 richest clovers. 



Why did Infinite Wisdom create 4,000 varieties 

 of grasses ? Was it that man should avail himself 

 of but one, or a dozen of these varieties, and the 

 others remain unsought, untasted and unappropria- 

 ted ? Or did He expect that the reason with which 

 he is endowed, and the intelligence which he might 

 gain, would lead to investigation and a choice of 

 these numerous varieties ? Is there not room' then, 

 for study and research ? "Who shall estimate the 

 number of our grasses ? Who shall classify them ? 

 And — what is a far more important question — who 

 shall test them in the crucible of science, so that the 

 practical farmer may, with certainty, avail himself of 

 the advantages which will result from the cultiva- 

 tion of the best varieties ?" 



The two grasses familiarly known, and generally 

 cultivated in Massachusetts, are timothy (so called 



