140 



similar followed. These latter gentry seem to be as little 

 acquainted with the writings of their predecessors, as with 

 Nature herself, and to have taken no pains to improve their 

 acquaintance with her, either by actual experiment, or 

 further observations on this grass. 



They had indeed made a most important discovery, to 

 wit, that agricultural hook-making was a most lucrative 

 trade ; for that the public, anxious to acquire agricultural 

 knowledge, bought whatever was published on the sub- 

 ject. 



There were enough ready to gratify them, and, without 

 taking the trouble to shew how they had acquired the 

 knowledge they were so ready to communicate, pronounce 

 upon all agricultural subjects, professorid lingudf as if their 

 authority could not be disputed. 



It is not surprising that the readers of these compila- 

 tions should not easily be convinced of the value of the 

 agrostis stoloniferay when they find their habitual instruc- 

 tors talking of this grass with so much contempt. 



I shall state what some of these gentlemen are pleased 

 to say of it. 



I commence with Mr. Davis, the oracle of the Wilt- 

 shire agriculturists ; he says, " The agrostis stolonifera 

 " is one of the worst grasses, the peculiar plague of the 



farmers in the S. E. district of Wiltshire"—" it is of 



that coarse nature that no cattle will eat it." 



Mr. Don dreads lest under the recommendation of 

 " old Stillingfleet, any agrostis should be culti- 

 " vated." Again, particularly mentioning the agrostis 

 stolonifera among the grasses not eligible for cultivation, 

 he says, " there is no species of agrostis that cattle arc 

 " fond of,"—" there is no reason to believe that any of them 

 " would answer for hay;" yet my late friend General 

 Vallancey sent me from the DUBLIN SOCIETY some 



