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Dr. F. H. Gordon, of Smith county, spent years in study- 

 ing the habits of blue-grass, and finally succeeded in giving 

 the best instructions for securing a stand : 



"Some seventy years ago," he says, writing in 1871, "two 

 young men named Cunningham came from the south branch 

 of the Potomac, in Virginia, to Strode's creek, in Bourbon 

 county, Kentucky. They had studied and practiced the 

 blue-grass system on the Potomac. They jointly purchased 

 two hundred acres of land on Stroke's creek, and sowed the 

 whole tract in timothy and blue-grass. In a few years their 

 whole tract was covered with a luxuriant coat of grass. 

 They had brought with them the seed, on a pack horse, all 

 the way from Virginia. Their farm soon attracted the at- 

 tention of their neighbors, who began to visit and learn how 

 to manage grass. In 1835, I too went to see the Cunning- 

 hams and many other farmers in the blue-grass region, in 

 order to learn the system. I devoted many weeks to the 

 study of the system going with the best farmers over their 

 farms and seeing their management, asking many questions 

 and writing down their answers. Then, the Cunninghams, 

 like many others, had grown to be wealthy on the profits 

 of the blue- grass. One of them, Robert, then had two 

 thousand acres in blue-grass and Isaac had three thousand. 

 Nearly all the farmers I visited owed the luxury of their 

 blue-grass to the direct instruction of the Cunninghams. 

 To me it was a feast to travel over and view the fine sod of 

 grass on the first two hundred acres which had caused the 

 whole blue-grass region to become so beautiful, prosperous 

 and wealthy. 



While learning the blue-grass system, I saw in every 

 neighborhood that those who had studied the system closest, 

 had the best pastures invariably. You can see in all that 

 region of blue-grass some farms where all the lots look like 

 gome of ours in Tennessee, which are gnawed all the year 

 round by calves, sheep and geese. This is because the 

 owner does not think enough about its management. He 



