] 3S I Assembly 



by it, and such a state, it may almost be said, made perpetual. 

 The alluvial lands of the west, its rich bottoms and prairies, may in 

 time be exhausted, or a great portion of them may, and all certaialy 

 rendered much less productive by bad tillage, and carrying all off and 

 putting nothing on in return. A rich sward or thick turf, too, protects 

 the earth from the sun in summer, which exhales from these naked 

 lands the little moisture and fertility they have left ; from heavy, 

 drenching rains which cut unsightly chasms in them, and otherwise 

 deface and injure their surface ; and from the frosts in winter which 

 heave out the roots of the few sickly, straggling plants remaining, 

 and they perish for want of warmth and support from kindred social 

 plants. Thus the barrenness of land so managed is complete, and 

 will continue, unless the system of culture is changed ; and the 

 change to renovate its fertility can be made in no other way so cheap 

 and eflectual, as by throwing over it a rich, close carpet of grass. 

 This will not only protect it from variations of the seasons, but the 

 manure derived from decayed herbage vind pasturage, would secure 

 and continue the renovation. Some opinion may be formed of its 

 importance from the estimate here given of two articles, the hay and 

 "butter of the nation ; and these, with most other agricultural products, 

 owe not only their existence, but their quantity and quality, to good 

 grass. In fine, it would not be extravagant to say, this important 

 plant, if cultivated properly, and made to thrive as well as it is sus- 

 ceptible of being made even on tolerable land, is worth as much as 

 ill the other products of the farm together. How to perform this 

 jultivation, to accomplish this thrift in the best way, it will here be 

 Attempted to show. First, remember that grass generally has many, 

 and a few kinds of it all the main chemical ingredients of the grain 

 plant ; it is supposed they were originally the same plant, and known 

 and called by the same name. To this day, in science all are called 

 grasses ; by way of distinction, though, the grain is termed the cereal 

 grass, being cultivated for its seed, producing a richer food for ani- 

 mals than mere grass ; it is longer in growing generally, and of course 

 consumes more and stronger nourishment in maturing. Cereal is from 

 CereSy the name of the heathen goddess of fruits and harvests. The 

 earth, then, en which they are to be grown, should be put and 

 kept in as fine state for the one as the other, with this difference, 

 that the grain requiring more time and more food from the soil to 



