146 



My ignorance of the soil tlirough the Austrian do- 

 minions, preclndes me from knowing if my Imperial 

 PUPILS be interested in the improvement of peaty soil; 

 but their brother the Emperor's territories abound with 

 mountains^ and these afford the finest field for raising florin 

 in the greatest abundance, whether by cultivation^ or the 

 more recent mode to which I am coming, of rousing the 

 efforts of spontaneous nature, to clothe these alpine sur- 

 faces w^ith either luxuriant meadow, or grateful pasture ; 

 and their Highnesses may live to see the Julian Alps, 

 and the Carpathian Mountains, affording as abundant 

 sustenance to their cattle, winter and summer, as is yielded 

 by their richest low countries. 



What satisfaction must it afford to the Arch-duke 

 John to revisit the Julian Alps, so favourite a country 

 with his Highness, and to call forth the exertions of the 

 spirited and loyal Tyrolese, to the improvement of their 

 country, which he had in more unhappy times so effectually 

 roused for its defence ! what pleasure must he feel in 

 adding to the comforts of a people so affectionately attached 

 to his Imperial House, and in witnessing the gradual 

 amehoration of a country so lately a scene of desolation, 

 but now rising under his own eye, and by his own instruc- 

 tions, into higher prosperity than they enjoyed before the 

 calamitous war in which they acquired so much glory ! 



I now proceed to the most important application of florin 

 grass that has yet occurred, — a mode of raising luxuriant 

 crops, so paradoxical, that it was years after I had made 

 the discovery before I ventured to communicate it to the 

 world; for when I saw the efforts of agriculturists to 

 cultivate the stolones, I saw them generally fail, and espe- 

 cially in England ; how could I expect to be believed, 

 when I should say that this grass would grow spontaneously 

 on grounds where it was neither sown nor planted, and. 



