open. This is not the case with grass, as the sheath can be 

 stripped down, it being open to the joint. Besides, the 

 leaves of all grasses are two-ranked, that is, the stem has 

 leaves on each side, some opposite, others alternate, but 

 always only on two sides. The leaves of sedges are three- 

 ranked, or come out on three sides of the circle of a stem. 

 In other words, the stem forms a circle of 360 degrees. 

 The grass leaves are 180 degrees from each other, and the 

 sedge leaves are 120 degrees apart. 



In the grass-like rush the flowers are divided into six 

 points, within which are six stamens and a triangular ovary 

 containing three seeds. A grass has never but one seed to 

 the ovary. 



The English farmer is able to take long leases of farms 

 from the rich landholder, at from $20 to $50 per annum 

 rent. How does he pay this extravagant rent and support 

 his family? He could not do it in any other manner than 

 by improving, manuring and increasing the meadows with 

 which they are constantly set. A Tennesseean will manure 

 his garden, and sometimes his corn land, but whoever thinks 

 of spreading manure on his meadows. Yet the Englishman 

 will spend large sums of money, and devote labor through 

 the whole winter, in accumulating a large compost heap to 

 apply to his meadows ! The result may be imagined. 

 While the Tennessee meadows will average from 800 to 

 1,500 pounds of hay to the acre, English meadows will 

 make from two to five tons on land that has no other ad- 

 vantage than the care bestowed on it by the owner. 



Besides this, the grass grown in a a damp cold climate is 

 never so sweet and nutritious as that raised under a warm 

 sun and with a quick growth. In this State there is an 

 occasional drought that begins in June or July, interfering 

 seriously with the development of the later crops. But 

 such a condition of climate is scarcely known in the earlier 

 months during the growth of the grass crops. Yet there is 

 with the spring rains a degree of temperature unknown to 



