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PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION 



(Published in iSjj) 



OR more than forty years the attention of the Authors has been particularly 

 directed to that branch of Agriculture which comprises the cultivation of the 

 Grasses and other Herbage and Forage Plants used for Pasturing and 

 Feeding Cattle. Twenty years ago (in i8jj) they drew up the results of their accumulated 

 obsetvations and experiments, with accompatiying Tables, specifying the kinds and quantities 

 of Seeds necessary to be sown for securing proper Pasturage : which observations were, 

 the following year, published in the " Quarterly Journal of Agriculture.^' Li 1836, after 

 undergoing revision, these Tables were republished in the " Agriculturist's Manual." 



A continuation of careful and minute trials and comparisons led them, in 1842, again to 

 revise these Tables, which were then embodied in the First Edition of the present Treatise, a 

 Second Edition of which was called for in 184.6, and a Third in 18^0. The circulation 

 of three large editions of a practical Treatise on Grasses proves, at least, that considerable 

 attention is now paid to this important subject ; and the Authors would fain hope that their 

 efforts to diffuse useful information on this branch of Agriculture have, in some degree, been 

 the means of bringing about so satisfactory a result. 



A Fourth Edition being now called for, the Authors have, with the view of rendering it 



of still greater utility, bestowed considerable care in its preparation. All the Tables have been 



carefully revised, and in some instances reconstructed, and now embody the results of their long 



experience and extended experiments. The descriptions of the various Natural and Artificial 



• Grasses have been entirely rewritten, and embrace all that is tiseful or interesting regarding 



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