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VEGETABLES. 



Having prepared the way for this subject by a 

 Gbhsideration of the internal structure of the coun- 

 try, the climate, and the different kinds of soils, an 

 account shall now be given of the principal vegetable 

 productions of the United States. 



Of those grasses which are essential to the exist- 

 ence of man and beast, a great variety is found, both 

 natural and artificial, and of as useful qualities as any 

 of the same kind in the world. Of the native grasses 

 the number is great ; and their nourishing qualities 

 are evinced by the size and number of the cattle 

 which are annually brought from the thickly tim- 

 bered forests of the new land. In the northern and 

 middle states, the fioa viridis or green sward grass, 

 deserves to be particularly noticed ; as it shews itself 

 in the most abundant manner in all places, which 

 have been enriched by manure, or the alluvial soil of 

 our creeks and rivers. In the inexhaustible mellow 

 soil of the peninsula between the Delaware and 

 Schuylkill, and on the banks of those rivers, three 

 crops of this grass may be cut every year, and from 

 two to three tons obtained from an acre at a cutting; 

 and has this peculiar quality, that frost does not affect 

 it, so that after the artiiicial grasses are killed for the 

 season, this excellent grass continues to flourish, and 

 even to acquire a new relish by the operation of the 

 cold. Cattle therefore continue to fatten upon it, 

 while those who depend upon clover and other arti- 

 ficial 'grasses, are either obliged to kill their stock, or 

 t0 resort to the expensive measure of feeding; on hay 



