i 



AGRICULTURE AND PLANTING. 39 



On Natural Grasses, 



intended either for pasture, hay, stall feeding, &c. by the judicious management 

 of which, the grazier will be enabled to keep one-fourth more stock; and the far- 

 mer will be enabled to produce one-fourth more corn upon the same land than he 

 did before, whereby the return of a scarcity might in a great measure be 

 prevented. 



Of all the evils with which this country has been lately afflicted, perhaps none 

 carried so threatening an an aspect as that of scaecity. Hence the necessity of 

 a national, and of an individual irtterference to remove the obstacles that oppose 

 the promoting, improving, and extending the agriculture of this kingdom. 



1st. Parliament in a national capacity to grant an act for a general inclo- 

 sure of the commons and wastes of the United Kingdom ; to commute or conso- 

 lidate tythes; and to revise and improve the corn laAvs. Agriculture should be 

 the first object of legislatures, and property the leading principle of agriculture. 



2nd. Gentlemen of landed property in an individual capacity to grant 

 leases, to increase the number of farms, and cottages, to offer well directed premi- 

 ums, &c. All these alterations and improvements would call forth the energies of 

 the individual cultivator, so as to secure plenty, and introduce a garden-like cul- 

 ture upon most of the land in the Kingdom. 



2, On Natural Grasses. 



JLJLOWEVER highly I have extolled Xlae artificial grasses; yet the natural 

 grasses are of the greatest importance to the grazier, as they nourish most of his 

 domestic animals: hence the necessity of attending to the cultivation of the best 

 sorts. The stems of the grasses are hollow, and consist in general of joint above 

 joint, without lateral branches; each joint of which seems to be a successive plant 

 growing on the preceding one, and generated in the bosom of the leaf, which sur- 

 rounds it; the stem may therefore be esteemed a succession of leaf buds, till at 

 length a flower bud is produced on the summit. 



