26 



ham by a large flight of wild fowls, and that from 

 thence the grass, and the meadows where it was first 

 discovered, and from whence it has been commnnicated 

 to many parts of the country, took their names. Vol. 

 1, p. 425. Dr. Nathaniel Ames, Sen., the celebrated 

 almanac maker, father of Fisher Ames, in his Almanac 

 for 1764, adds the date, — not very precise, however, — 

 of the supposed introduction of the grass here. He 

 says : — " The famous fowl meadow grass was brought 

 mto a spacious meadow on Neponset river, by the 

 wild fowl which frequent that place, where it first 

 made its appearance about fifty years ago," that is, 

 about the beginning of the last century. " The seed 

 is now collected," he adds, " and carried into various 

 parts of the country."* 



In a multitude of ways intelligence adds greatly 

 to the satisfaction of country labor ; it lightens its 

 burdens, relieves its tediousness, and renders it not 

 more, but less distasteful." William Howitt, in his 

 book on " The Rural Life of England," reports the 

 following reply of a " farming man " of some intel- 

 lectual culture, to the question, "whether reading did 

 not render him less satisfied with his daily work." 

 " Before he read," he says, " his work was weary to 

 him ; for, in solitary fields, an empty head measured 

 the time out tediously to double its length ; but now, 

 no place was so sweet as the solitary fields ; he had 

 always something pleasant floating across his mind ; 

 and the labor was delightful and the day only too 



* "Worthington's History of Dcdham, p. 10. Whence the grass came no 

 one knows. The tradition in Dedhani does not, so far as I am aware, in- 

 form us at what season tlie " wild fowls" alluded to appeared, or whether 

 thoy were passing north or south. Mr. Sanford Howard, in his " Prize 

 Essay," refers to Professor Gray of Cambridge as stating that he had " seen 

 the grass on the upper waters of the Mohawk and in Western New York." 



