vi PREFACE. 



world-wide celebrity and acceptance, and all of whom 

 have devoted the best part of their lives to the study of 

 this and kindred subjects. 



In the part devoted to the grasses the writer has 

 set himself the task of sifting out those passages which 

 most directly illustrate the points that have practical 

 importance to those connected with agriculture, sum- 

 marising and arranging same by the aid, on the one 

 hand, of an experience derived from a long connection 

 with the Home and Foreign seed trade, and on the 

 other hand, of an enthusiasm developed by long appli- 

 cation to a particular line of study. 



The aim also has been to avoid elaborate statements 

 of matters with which most intelligent agriculturists 

 are already acquainted ; and to abstain from cumbering 

 the work with botanical descriptions, or with historical 

 accounts of the derivation of species and varieties — 

 matters which, whatever interest they may have for the 

 curious student of botany, are of small importance to 

 the farmers and seedsmen for whose use this work is 

 intended. 



The contents of the vmrJc comprise the following : — 



1. The opinions in brief of the best authorities up 

 to date on the comparative merits and values of the 

 principal pasture and forage plants used in the agricul- 

 ture of Europe and North America, with notes on 

 suitable soils and situations. 



2. Analyses of the leading natural and artificial 

 grasses, notes on their comparative values as regards 

 produce and nutritive matter, deduced from the cele- 

 brated Woburn experiments. 



3. Notes on the weeds and parasitic plants that 

 infest our pastures and forage crops (a large proportion 



