INTRODUCTION. 



V 



grasses, ' and by affording the means of distinguishing the different species and varieties with 

 more certainty. ' . 



The valuable labours of the Agricultural Societies of Great Britain, and the patriotic exer 

 tions of emnient nulividuals in the same cause, have raised a spirit of enquiry, which cannot fail 

 to produce the most beneficial effects in tliis important branch of practical agriculture. A hope 

 of promoting these views, was the motive that induced His Grace the Duke of Bedford to insti- 

 tute the following series of experiments*. ' 



" Spots of ground, each containing font- square feet, in the Garden at Woburn Abbey were 

 enclosed by boards in such a manner, that there was no lateral communication betwe'en the 

 earth mclosed by the boards and that of the garden; the soil was removed in these enclosures 

 and new soils supplied, or mixtures of soils were made in them, to furnish, as far as possible to 

 the different grasses, those soils which seem most favourable to their growth, a few varieties 

 being adopted, for the purpose of ascertaining the effects of different soils on the same plantf " 

 The nature of those soils was accurately ascertained by analysis; the process employed was that 

 recommended by Sir H. Davy. Upwards of two hundred species and varieties of o^-ass wer<^ 

 planted or sown at the proper seasons; the different species were cut at certain' stages of 

 growth, and the weight of produce carefully ascertained ; the particular seasons at which the 

 different species attained to the greatest degree of perfection, were attentively observed as like' 

 wise the time of flowering, and the period of perfecting the seed. Their comparative value 

 therefore, m regard to produce, and the particular seasons at which it was in perfection' 

 with the kinds of soil most favourable to their growth, and the peculiar habits of the different 

 species, were, by these me_ans, satisfactorily ascertained ; but the comparative degree of their 

 nutritive po^vers, (a point of the first importance), was still to be determined. 



Those who have made experiments, to prove the comparative degree of nourishment con^ 

 tanied indifferent species of food, by means of feeding, and weighing, have found the results of 

 such experiments quite inconclusive ; and the impossibility of ever determining by Ms process' 

 the absolute degree of nourishment supplied to cattle by any kind of food, almost certain • for' 

 Brst, The quality of the same species 6f food will often vary, from one to twenty per'cent.' 

 m the course of the experiment. - '•'.,, ■ . 



Secondly, Different breeds or varieties of animals, acquire various proportions of flesh from 

 equal quantities of the same species of food consumed by them. Or, 



W^, Scarcely two individuals of the same breed Can be found, that will gain equal 

 weights of flesh from equal quantities of the same kind of food. With a view to this point only 

 It would therefore have been a vain labour, to have submitted so great a number of different' 

 plants to the experiment of feeding and weighing, and which would require at least to be made 

 on four hundred head of cattie of the same breed. 



His Grace judged that the enquiry would be effectually assisted by the aids of chemistry • 

 and a simple chemical process, recommended for this purpose by Sir Humphry Davy, 

 tamed the important point in question in the most satisfactory manner. 



h 



Dnv ''/*''''*"f °^ *^^ '^'"**' ""^ ^ P^'*^ °f ^'^ese experiments, is already before the public, through the kindness of Sir Humphry 

 ^avy. See "Agricultural Chemistry." 



ascer- 



+ Ibid. 



\ 



