141 



seed of the agrostis stricla, sent to the society from Ame- 

 rica, as the best meadow grass, and the one chiefly sown 

 in that Trans-Atlantic country. 



It even appears that Mr. Don had got some hints on 

 the value of this grass, which he treats with contempt ; he 

 says, Some gentlemen of considerable observation and 

 '* experience have thought, that the agrostis was an eli- 

 " gible plant for cultivation, and that it makes good hay; 

 " but to this I am persuaded no practical farmer would 

 " agree." 



He says, in another place, " a stranger is often asto- 

 nished at the apparent luxuriance of this useless grass." 

 He proceeds by ejaculation — 



" How much then must it interest the cultivator of 

 " such a soil, to discover a grass that might thrive as well 

 " as this, and at the same time afford nutritious food for 

 " his cattle !" 



Mr. Don would rather cant and complain, than trouble 

 himself to try with patience, whether the luxuriance that 

 he admits he observed, might not supply his great desi- 

 deratum, nutritious food for his cattle. 



Mr. Don concludes with an amusing apostrophe : " Im- 

 " provident Nature! could you not, to enrich the agricul- 

 " turist, have endowed some other grass capable of afford- 



ing nutritious food for our cattle, with that enviable 

 " luxuriance so provokingly displayed by this useless 

 " grass?" 



Thus it appears, that Nature, not content with sup- 

 plying Mr. Don's great desideratum, a grass that will 

 afford nutritious food for our cattle, but also that this 

 same Nature, having obtruded it in various ways on these 

 wise hook-makers, and repeatedly on Mr. Don himself, is 

 charged with improvidence by this agricultural oracle, and 

 this through a .publication calculated to convey instruction 



