PEEFACE. 



In the preparation of tMs work all available sources of information 

 to be had in Europe or America have been consulted. Free use has 

 been made of the standard works of Gray, Flint, Gould and Howard, 

 and also of the reports of the Agricultural Department at Washington, 

 as well as the numerous State reports. The admirable works, of Prof. 

 S. W. Johnson, of Tale College, have supplied me with valuable in- 

 formation. I have had access to the various publications of Baron 

 Liebig, the pioneer in agricultural science, and have also derived much 

 aid from the painstaking researches of Wolff and Knop of Germany; 

 of Johnson, Way, Sinclair, Mechi, Voelcker, Lawes and Gilbert, of 

 England, and from the reports of the Highland Society of Scotland. 

 The little work of Edmund Murphy, of Ireland, has been suggestive. 

 I have relied mainly, however, upon the experience, observation and 

 success of the best farmers of our own State. Reference is made 

 elsewhere to the great assistance received from Dr. W. M. Clarke, Dr. 

 Gattinger and Prof. Hunter Nicholson. The work is the result of much 

 labor, and I indulge the hope that it may be instrumental in directing 

 the minds of our farmers to the importance of the grasses in the solu- 

 lution of the problem of agricultural thrift and prosperity. 



It is due to Mrs. Clare Snivelj, of Nashville, to say that the cuts 

 which appear in the work were executed by her, many of them from 

 original drawings. 



Several verbal errors escaped the proof reader, many of which were 

 detected and corrected before the full edition of the book was worked 

 off. On page 14, fifteenth line from the top, there is an error in the 

 statement made. There are in fact about eighty species of sedges and 

 rushes found growing in the State, very few of which are eaten by 

 cattle. The "broomsedge," so called, is not a sedge, but a true grass, 

 belonging to the genus andropogon, and forms the chief summer graz- 

 ing of the Cumberland Mountains. It should be called broom grass. 



J. B. KILLEBREW. 

 July 27, 1878. 



