220 



AsricuHural Address. 



Vol. VIII. 



consideration of the cultivators of the soil. 

 It is emplritically with the products of ve- 

 getation — the jrreat source of animal sub- 

 sistence — that the agriculturist is concerned: 

 and if, in other pursuits, the operative finds 

 it necessary to be well acquainted with his 

 materials, it cannot be less desirable that 

 the farmer should have an accurate know- 

 ledge of those objects which demand his 

 care and attention. With such knowledge, 

 he can not only understand precisely what 

 plants are most worthy of culture, but, what 

 is scarcely less important, he can compre- 

 hend the true character of those which re- 

 quire all his vigilance to exclude, or to ex- 

 tirpate from his grounds. He can not only 

 identify, to his ovt-n satisfaction, the plants 

 which it behoves him to know, but, by the 

 use of an appropriate nomenclature, he can 

 make himself perfectly intelligible, when 

 communicating his information to others. 

 The want of this knowledge, and especially 

 the uncertainty of popular names, is a source 

 of much confusion and perplexity in the in- 

 tercourse of farmers, and in the essays of 

 agricultural writers.* Every district of 

 country, and almost every neighbourhood, 

 has its own names for well-known plants : 

 but they are apt to be variously applied, the 

 same plant being frequently known by dif- 

 ferent names, and the same name often bo- 

 stowed on very distinct plants. A striking 

 instance of this may be cited, by way of il- 

 lustration, in the use of the term Herd's 

 grass; which, in Neio England, is applied 

 to the grass known to us by the name of 

 Timothy, or the Phleum pratense, of the 

 Botanists: — whereas, in Pennsylvania, and 

 perhaps in all the States south of it, the 

 term Herd's grass, is appropriated to a 

 plant technically called Agrostis vulgaris, 

 — entirely distinct from the preceding, and 

 of inferior value. This discrepancy is liable 

 to cause annoying mistakes, and has even 

 been the occasion of litigation, between the 

 seedsmen of Boston and Philadelphia. I 

 can perceive no remedy for the errors and 

 confusion resulting from a loose and variable 



* We almost evory day see high-wrouaht notices of 

 plants— supposed by the writers to be new, or unknown 

 and which set the curious all aso?, to learn what ths 

 wonderful novelties maybe: — when, nine times out of 

 ten, if the proper scientific names were given, we 

 should recognize them as old acquaintances, and 

 should always be able to form a tolerable estimate of 

 their value, by a knowledge of their Botanical charac- 

 ter and affinities. In all such cases, there is no surer 

 protection against imposition, or what is vulgarly 

 called humbug — than a competent acquaintance with 

 the first principles of Natural History; which should 

 be taught and considered as an indispensable branch 

 of education, in every school throughout the land. 



popular nomenclature, but a resort to the 

 precise scientific names, imposed by system- 

 atic writers. 'J'he use of .popular names 

 may answer every purpose, in colloquial in- 

 tercourse with our neighbours ; but when 

 we wish to be explicitly understood by 

 strangers, or by persons in trade, it would 

 be bettor to employ the exact language of 

 science, and to use tiiose names for objects, 

 which have a specific meaning, recognized 

 by all the world. Nor need tliis be regarded 

 as an onerous task, so far as the practical 

 farmer is concerned. To attempt to master 

 the nomenclature of the whole vegetable 

 kingdom, would indeed be a hopeless, and a 

 futile undertaking : but to be able to desig- 

 nate, by the appropriate names, all those 

 plants which he finds deserving of notice 

 on his grounds, is an accomplishment which 

 every young farmer, at least, should resolve 

 to acquire. In the middle States, there are 

 to be met with, on our farms, perhaps one 

 hundred species of plants v,hich claim at- 

 tention, either for their valuable, or their 

 pernicious qualities, — or which ought to be 

 expelled, as wortliless occupants of the soil. 

 These ought , to be well known to every 

 rarmer; and surely, no intelligent man can 

 doubt his ability to learn the names and 

 characters of that number, when he recol- 

 lects the facility with which all the world 

 acquired the scientific name of a plant of 

 recent notoriety. The classical name of 

 Morns MuUicaulis, has become as familiar 

 as a household word, in the mouths of the 

 most illiterate rustics in the land ; and it 

 would be a libel on the intellect of American 

 farmers, to insinuate that they could not be- 

 come equally well acquainted with those 

 other plants which q,re daily before their 

 eyes — either claiming their care, or requir- 

 ing extirpation. 



In truth, the well-bred agriculturist, whose 

 business it eminently is to study and turn to 

 good account, the products of the soil, ought 

 to know the name, the character, and the 

 entire history, of every plant that he meets 

 with on his premises, — or that approaches 

 him from those of his neighbours: but all I 

 ask, as a commencement, is, that he should 

 learn to know the limited number which it 

 is his immediate interest to know, and of 

 which it is disreputable, as well as disadvan- 

 tageous, to be ignorant. Many worthy per- 

 sons, I am aware, allege as an excuse for 

 their deficiency in this kind of knowledge, 

 that they have not time to acquire it: but I 

 beg leave to intimate to such, that they have 

 mistaken the nature of their complaint. It 

 is not so much the want of time, which af- 

 flicts them, as the roant of taste, and the 

 neglect of opportunities. We all idle away 



