viii Preface to First tJditioti. 



which, of course 1 had paid for. But my friend's 

 article at once aroused the trade and the public, 

 and led to that system of guaranteeing seed which 

 was initiated by Mr. James Hunter, the well- 

 known seed merchant of Chester, whose treatise 

 on permanent pasture has, I may mention in 

 passing, been highly and justly commended by 

 Mr. De Laune. My friend has often been urged 

 by me to bring out a book on the subject of 

 laying down land to grass, and I am given to 

 understand that he had made preparations for 

 the work; but after his death all that could be 

 discovered amongst his papers were some proofs, 

 which were evidently those of his articles in the 

 Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, though 

 a good many passages, one of which I have quoted 

 (vide page 21), must have been deleted. The 

 following brief notice of Mr. De Laune will be 

 interesting to his friends, and also, I hope, to 

 many of those who, like myself, have benefited 

 by his work : — 



Mr. Faunce de Laune came of an old Kentish 

 family, and one of his ancestors— a naval officer — 

 was present at the attack on the Spanish Armada 

 in the year 1588. The family suffered much in 

 the civil wars, and one of them was knighted at 

 the Restoration for his loyalty to the Royal cause. 

 My late friend was born in 1843, succeeded his 

 father in 1861, and died in 1891 from an illness 



