OP TENNESSEE. 25 



CHAPTER III. 



HOW AND BY WHOM GRASSES HAVE BEEN IMPROVED 



WOBURN EXPERIMENTS — EXPERIMENTS OP LEWIS AND 

 GILBERT — WAY'S EXPERIMENTS — ANALYSIS OP GRASSES 

 — TABLES BY WOLF AND OTHERS. 



Although, since the time of the oldest records, a large 

 proportion of mankind have been " keepers of flocks and 

 herds." it is only within the last century that any systematic 

 and successful efforts are known to have been made toward 

 selecting and improving the grasses of the meadow and 

 pasture. And even to this day the value of a large major- 

 ity of the grasses knowh remains to be tested by any ex- 

 haustive and trustworthy experiments. The . knowledge 

 which botanists have of the grasses would be of but little 

 value to the farmers if they possessed it, since it is confined 

 almost entirely to the mode of blooming, shape and flower 

 and leaf, and other minor details, quite important and 

 essential to classification, but almost useless for any prac- 

 tical purpose on the farm. What the farmer heeds t» 

 know about a grass is its nutritive value, its time of bloom- 

 ing, its habit of growth, and favorite locality. He is inter- 

 ested in knowing how much food it will furnish, at what 

 time of the year, in what form, and from what character of 

 soil. These are questions with which botanists have not, 

 heretofore, concerned themselves, but which must be an- 

 swered, now that farmers' sons are beginning to learn bot- 

 any and chemistry. 



The first impulse was given to grass cultivation in Eng- 

 land by the London Society for the Encouragement of Arts, 

 Manufacturers and Commerce, which, in 1766, offered prizes 

 for "gathering by hand the seeds of Meadow Foxtail, 

 Meadow Fescue and Sweet Vernal Grass." The success of 



