292 GRASSES NATURAL TO THE SOIL. 



difference in their weight ; a given number of pounds 

 of some species containing many more seeds, and there- 

 fore producing a far larger number of plants than an 

 equal weight of others. 



There are few points in our practice, it seems to me, 

 where greater improvements could be made than in the 

 selection and mixture of our grass-seeds. If the money 

 which is now literally thrown away, by over-seeding 

 with one or two species, were expended in procuring 

 other species and improving our mixtures, there is but 

 little doubt that the aggregate profit on our grass crop 

 would be much greater than it now is. 



Some maintain that one or two species are sufficient, 

 because certain grasses are '' natural," as they say, to 

 their land, and come in of themselves. This may, in 

 some cases, be true to some extent, for such grasses 

 will come in, in time ; but we are liable to lose sight of 

 the fact that the loss of a full yield, in the mean time, is 

 often very serious. 



But the inference which farmers draw from this fact 

 is not a legitimate one, for they say that it proves that 

 the grasses that come in " naturally," that is, the wild 

 grasses, are best adapted to the soil, and will produce 

 more largely than others in that locality. But this, if 

 carried out to its natural consequences, would lead to 

 the conclusion that new species of plants should never 

 be introduced into any soil, because those best suited 

 to it grow there " naturally," — a principle which no 

 man will assert. 



On the contrary, one great object of all intelligent 

 farming is to improve upon nature, and to increase the 

 natural capacities both of the soil and of the plants 

 which grow on it ; and the introduction of new species 

 and varieties is one of the most effectual means of ac- 

 complishing this end. Particular species of plants do 



