123 



result of experiments on this grass, instituted before 1 

 could form a conjecture wliat the results would be. 



In my early agricultural pursuits, I soon discovered that 

 the gramina was a subject, on which the practical farmer, 

 and, his instructors the modern agricultural writers, all 

 seedsmen, nurserymen, and agricultural hook-makers^ 

 mostly from GruBtSTREET, were equally ignorant. 



This ignorance of the natural history of the gramina 

 has been often noticed. Mr. White, in his Natural His- 

 tory of Selborne, says: " But of all sorts of vegetation 

 ** the grasses seem to be the most neglected; neither the 

 " farmer nor the grazier seem to distinguish the annual 

 " from the perennial, the hardy from the tender, the succu- 



lent and the nutritious from the efry and jMzce/m." (Mr, 

 White should have added the huloniferous from the stolo- 

 niferous.) 



" The study of grasses would be of great consequence 

 " to a Northerly and grazing kingdom ; the botanist who 

 " would improve the soil of the district where he lived, 

 " would be a useful member of society ; to raise a thick 

 " turf on a naked soil would be worth volumes of syste- 

 " matic knowledge, and he would be the best common- 

 " wealth's man, who could occasion the growth of two 

 " blades of grass, where but one grew before." 



Whether I be entitled to the credit which Mr. White 

 so liberally bestows, those who have inspected the grass 

 crops I have raised on hleak mountains and cut-out moss, 

 can best determine ; indeed Mr. White's praise, a thick 

 turf on a naked soil, seems a prophetic description of 

 many florin meadows. 



I could quote other authorities also, for the small pro- 

 gress which this branch of agricultural knowledge has 

 made ; but I shall limit myself to one, whose weight will 

 not be contested with me. 



