13() MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



These are the grasses of our meadows and pastures, which 

 furnish us our beef and mutton, our butter and milk; which feed 

 our horses, the noblest of our domestic animals, and still among 

 the most useful, in spite of electric railroads, horseless carriages, 

 and bicycles. The money value of the hay crop of the United 

 States for the year 1894 was estimated at nearly half a billion 

 dollars, and the value of the grasses in pastures of the Northern 

 States may be considered equal in value to the hay produced, 

 while in the Southern States and the great grazing regions of the 

 West, the value of the pasturage far exceeds that of the hay crop. 

 A conservative estimate, therefore, of the annual value of the 

 grasses of the meadows and pastures of this country alone 

 exceeds a billion dollars. 



"Before dismissing this subject of the utility of grasses in 

 furnishing food for man and the animals he has domesticated, we 

 shall do well to pause for a little reflection upon its relation to 

 the indvistry, commerce, and wealth of nations, as well as to 

 man's subsistence — our dependence not only upon the cereal 

 grasses for our staple vegetable food, but indirectly upon the 

 forage grasses for our supplies of animal food, namely beef, 

 mutton, venison, and dairy produce, as well as for various animal 

 substances such as wool and hair, hides and skins, bone and horn, 

 oil and tallow, used for textile and other manufactures (notably 

 woolen fabrics and leather), or for domestic purposes — the 

 large proportion of the world's inhabitants engaged in agricult- 

 ural (chiefly cereal cultivation) and pastoral pursuits, in some 

 countries from seventy to ninety per cent of the adult male pop- 

 ulation — the vast internal and foreign trade connected with the 

 distribution of agricultural products by land and sea — the 

 numerous and important industries concerned in operating upon 

 one or other form of this produce in order to prepare it for con- 

 sumption ; and lastly, the enormous capital employed in all these 

 industrial activities, and the consequent accumulation of wealth. 

 It is only when we take a comprehensive survey, such as here 

 indicated, that we are able to form some conception of the tran- 

 scendent importance of the Graminese." ' 



There are a number of minor uses to which many species of 

 grasses have been applied ; probably the most important is the 

 material they furnish for paper-making. Several of our native 



1 William Hutchinson in " Handbook of Grasses," 1895. 



