338 CULTIVATION OF GRASSES, 



Mrs. B. True ; but if one surface were washed down, 

 another would be exposed to the same danger ; and thus, 

 in the lapse of time, successive surfaces would be destroy- 

 ed, and the mountain finally be brought low ! 



Another species of meadows incapable of being mown 

 are common fields, every parishioner having a right of 

 pasturage ; a circumstance which renders this species of 

 tenure extremely disadvantageous : it is, in fact, condem- 

 ning the land to yield as little produce as possible. 



Let us now proceed to the artificial grasses, the most 

 benevolent of all the vegetable tribe. It is to them that 

 we are indebted for repairing the injury which the land 

 sustains from the culture of grain. They were first intro- 

 duced into France by the celebrated agriculturist, Olivier 

 de Serres, in the sixteenth century. 



Emily. These grasses do not, I suppose, form perma- 

 nent meadows, but are sown alternately with crops of 

 corn, in order to recruit the soil after the exhaustion it 

 has undergone from the latter. 



Mrs. B. Certainly : thus alternated, they form an ex- 

 cellent course of cropping. Most of the artificial grasses 

 are of the leguminous family ; among these the vetches 

 and the scarlet clover are annuals. The common purple 

 clover lasts two or three years. It is difficult to obtain 

 the seed unadulterated by that of other plants. Clover 

 has long been cultivated on the left bank of the Rhine, 

 for the sole purpose of producing seed for sale : this com- 

 merce was chiefly carried on with England ; for though 

 we cultivate a considerable quantity of clover, we use it, 

 almost wholly, as food for cattle ; our summers seldom be- 

 ing hot enough to ripen the seed, so that we are obliged 

 to have recourse to that of foreign growth. A very profit- 

 able trade was carried on with us in this article, when 

 Buonaparte issued his decree against exportation, and the 

 poor agriculturists on the left bank of the Rhine, then 

 under the dominion of France, were nearly ruined. The 

 Germans, on the opposite bank, supplanted them in a 



1826. How can they be of so much use, as they confine merely the 

 surface of the soil! 1827. What does Mrs. B. say of common fields! 

 1828. Who introduced artificial grasses into France, and what is said 

 of their importance 1 ? 1829. Of what family are most of the artificial 

 grasses, and what is said ot vetches, scarlet clover, and purple clover! 

 1830. How has clover been cultivated on the left bank of the Rhinel 

 1831. How was the trade in the seed of clover with England interrupt- 

 ed'? 



