PREFACE. vii 



of which objectionable vegetation finds its way there 

 through the medium of the seed). 



4. Eevised standards of purity and germinating 

 faculty of agricultural seeds as recognised or used in 

 the Home and Foreign seed trade. 



5. Eemarks on the impurities and adulterations of 

 seeds, with extracts from the Act of Parliament known 

 as, but miscalled, " The Adulteration of Seeds Act." 



6. Detailed instructions as to how the quality (purity, 

 genuineness, &c.) of a parcel of seed may be judged ; 

 accompanied by illustrations giving enlarged sketches 

 of those seeds that are somewhat difficult of recognition. 



7. Notes on the manures that suit, or are unsuitable 

 to, the various pasture and forage plants. 



The information contained in this little book has been 

 collected from works that are in many cases bulky and 

 rare and expensive, insomuch that but few men could 

 spare the time for, or care to go to the trouble of, 

 collecting them, and plodding through their contents. 

 On those grounds the compiler of this work ventures to 

 hope that his labours, in collecting and arranging, will 

 be appreciated by a large number to whom the infor- 

 mation presented in this handy form wiU be useful. 



Of original investigation into the subject of pasture 

 and forage plants there has been a surprising dearth in 

 the United Kingdom ; which is all the more to be won- 

 dered at when one remembers that in such a humid and 

 uncertain climate as ours there is no tribe of plants so 

 important as the natural and artificial grasses. 



Since the time of Sinclair little or nothing has been 

 done in the same line in the British Islands. The only 



