VI PREFACE. 



It seems unnecessary to dwell here upon the 

 importance of the subject. Perennial grasses, says 

 an eminent practical farmer, are the true basis of 

 agriculture in the highest condition of that best 

 employment of man. Grasses which are not peren- 

 nial are of immense value, especially as one of the 

 shifts in the ordinary rotation of crops, suited to the 

 agriculture of the great upper or northerly portion 

 of our continent, all of it above the cotton line. 

 But it is the grasses which are perpetual to which 

 we are to look for our chief success in farming. 



Perhaps the most forcible expression of opinion 

 on this point may be found in a French writer, who 

 asserts that the term grass is only another name for 

 beef, mutton, bread, and clothing; or in the Bel- 

 gian proverb, " No grass, no cattle; no cattle, no 

 manure ; no manure, no crops ! " 



If my researches, imperfect as they doubtless 

 have been, should have the effect of creating a more 

 general interest in the subject, and leading to more 

 careful inquiry, and more general and accurate in- 

 vestigation, I shall be amply rewarded for any 

 labor which I have bestowed upon the preparation 

 of the following pages. 



0. L. F. 



BOSTON, Aug., 1859. 



