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the quantity of saccharum it contains ; it is upon this rich 

 juice, that its nutritive powers, as well as its gratefuhiess 

 to cattle, depends; and nature seems to have bestowed on 

 many vegetables, various portions of this delicious liquid, . 

 which in a concrete form has become almost a necessary to 

 man. 



The Americans have found a new source of it in their 

 Maple-tree ; and Bonaparte, when he could obtain 

 sugar only by enriching those whom he mortally hated, ex- 

 pected to extract the rich juice from Beet-root. 



To establish then the high value of florin grass, we have 

 only to show that it contains much saccharumy and. compa- 

 ratively far more than any of the grassy tribe we are ac- 

 quainted with — and this will not be difficult. 



By our own taste we can make a vague comparison on 

 this point, between florin and other hay. Once as I was 

 laying down my stolones, a neighbour took up one of them, 

 and said, this is the grass children chew for its sweetness : 

 — but we must have more decided proofs. 



My friend the Hon. George Knox, our first chemist, 

 undertook to find the comparative quantities of saccharum, 

 in florin, and common hay : I furnished him with the 

 former, and he procured some of the best common hay in 

 the market. 



I called at the laboratory of the Dublin Society, where 

 Mr. Knox carried on his operations. When he had re- 

 duced the residue from the two hays to a consistence hke 

 tar, that from florin was hke rich molasses, while the other 

 residuum was a nauseous and bitter extract. 



Mr. Knox's brother, the Bishop of Derry, encou- 

 raged by this, attempted to distill spirits from a decoction 

 of florin hay, and completely succeeded. 



I now applied to the Revenue Board for a licence to set 

 up a small temporary still, and made the experiment eight 



