No. 199. 1 137 



life, and, in some shape ov other, are almost the only food of plants. 

 Besides, the roots of grasses aid in pulverizing the soil ; some of them 

 penetrate deep into the earth and render it loose and friable, and make 

 it not only a richer but a softer and deeper bed for plants of every 

 kind. 



Without grass (it is meant here good grass) the farm would be of 

 little worth, it would not produce good grain of any kind, if it could 

 not produce rich and plentiful crops of grass. A large stock could 

 not be kept upon it, for there would be nothing, or very little, to sup- 

 port them ; hay, straw, litter for the barn-yard, reduced comparatively 

 to nothing. A great source of manure is here cut off; then comes 

 the produce of the dairy, milk, butter, and cheese, the fat animals for 

 market, lambs, calves, sheep, wool, fat beef, all derive their existence 

 and profitable condition more or less directly from grass. We will 

 give here an estimate of the value to the nation of two articles of 

 the farm, and derived, i'c may be said, directly from grass, hay, and 

 butter. The Patent Office reports for 1848, estimate the hay of that 

 year at nearly $150,000,000 ; and the butter here put down is from, 

 another source, probably equally reliable, at $72,800,000. From the 

 estimate of these tAvo items, an opinion may be fornjed of the im- 

 mense value of all others derived from the same source. It may be 

 said that land, if it possesses the necessary mineral ingredients, and 

 happily located in other respects, wtll of itself produce the natural 

 grasses which will grow luxuriantly upon it, and afford food for ani- 

 mals. So it will, and some of these of the best kind. This is not 

 the case, though, with land that has been long tilled and badly tilled, 

 and a good deal naturally not of the best kind ; every thing carried 

 off, and nothing or very little put upon it in return. This is the case 

 with much of the land of the Atlantic States, and such a system in 

 time must necessarily exhaust and impoverish it ; and it is only to 

 be recruited and restored by proper cultivation of the best grasses that 

 will grow upon it, and the system of pasturage. The best scientific 

 wiiiers upon Agriculture, both ancient and modern, and those best 

 acquainted with it in theory and practice, all agree that old, exhaust- 

 ed, worn out lands, cannot in any other way be recruited and restored 

 so quick, cheap and effectually, as they can by a judicious pursuit of 

 this system. Lands in good condition can be preserved so longer 



