AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY ADDRESSES.—TUSSAC AND ARUNDO GRASS. 
133 
We wish it were oftener transplanted to their yards 
and gardens. In remote settlements, where culti¬ 
vated flowers are scarce, resort should always be 
made to the wild ones around. Transplanting and 
good cultivation frequently greatly improve them, 
and under any circumstances, many which are 
indigenous to our country, are superior to the ex¬ 
otics for which we pay high prices abroad, and in 
addition incur considerable risk and expense in their 
transportation home. In cultivating wild flowers 
all this is saved, and a benefit in addition is confer¬ 
red upon the flora of America. Neatly white¬ 
washed, and surrounded by native flowers, even the 
humble log-house becomes a pleasing feature in 
the landscape, and adds much to its picturesque 
variety. 
AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY ADDRESSES. 
In the ensuing three months there will be sever¬ 
al hundred meetings of agricultural societies, and 
at each of these there will be one or more address¬ 
es. The persons usually sought to make these 
are professional men, who, however well-informed 
they may be upon general subjects and able speak¬ 
ers, have not usually possessed that practical 
knowledge of agriculture, which would enable 
them to speak more instructively to their auditors. 
The consequence is, that their addresses deal in 
generals, and we have discourses beginning with 
Adam, and running down through Hesiod, Virgil, 
Googe, and Sinclair, to the most modem promi¬ 
nent agriculturist of whom the speaker may hap¬ 
pen to have any knowledge in our own country; 
interlarded with something of the clap-trap 
about farmers being “ the bone and sinew of 
the nation; the foundation and superstructure of 
society,” &c.; all of which they have heard so 
often repeated, that they at last very sensibly be¬ 
gin to consider it as something of a bore, and bor¬ 
dering upon what may be technically termed gam¬ 
mon. 
Now instead of these declamatory generals , we 
would recommend the addresses to be made of 
practical particulars. 
There are a thousand subjects to talk about; for 
example, irrigation and the formation of water- 
meadows ; ditching and draining, especially 
swamps and fever and ague ponds; peat and muck 
manure; the best rotation of crops for the locality 
of the society; the best kinds of stock for the 
same, and how it may be improved; the best va¬ 
rieties of poultry; the best kinds of grain, vegeta¬ 
bles, grasses, fruits, trees, shrubbery, flowers, &c., 
&c.; for there is scarcely a limit to the interesting 
and instructive subjects that might be mentioned. 
Another thing, we think the addresses generally 
quite too long; they ought not to occupy over half 
an hour, unless there is something unusually inter¬ 
esting to discourse about, or some new discoveries 
to be made to the public. 
TUSSAC AND ARUNDO GRASS. 
In answer to that part of Mr. McCaughan’s let¬ 
ter upon tussac grass, we give an extract from 
the despatches of Lieutenant Governor Moody of 
the Falkland islands, to Lord Stanley, one of the 
British ministry, just published in Part I., Vol. IV., 
of the Journal of the English Royal Agricultural 
Society. It is the Dactylis Cespitosa y and we 
have written out to England to see if some of the 
seeds can be obtained. It will be seen that the 
report upon it emanates from a high quarter, and 
however promising it may read, we have no doubt 
of the truth of the description and great value of 
this grass; and could its cultivation be introduced 
on to the waste lands of the southern seashore, it 
would prove a source of incalculable wealth, to 
that at present almost barren section of the coun¬ 
try. And while upon this subject, we are delight¬ 
ed to learn that our southern friends have begun to 
look about them, and experiment upon some of j 
their own natural products. Perhaps they may 
yet discover something, which, by a little cultiva¬ 
tion, will prove of as great value to them as the 
tussac grass. There are several of the natural 
grasses on the prairies, which the first settlers 
took great pains to plow up and kill, that are now 
found by experience to be inferior, as grazing food, 
to no cultivated grass whatever. 
The extract about the arundo grass ( arundo 
alopecurus) is from a report of Mr. Hooker of the 
Falkland islands, to Governor Moody 
There is another indigenous grass of inestimable 
value, which deserves the particular attention of 
every person connected with grazing and sheep¬ 
farming even in England, but more especially Scot¬ 
land and Ireland. I allude to what is here called 
“ Tussac.” The tussac is a gigantic sedgy grass, 
of the genus Carex. I measured the length of the 
blades, and found them to average seven feet in 
length, and three quarters of an inch in width ; 
some, in favorable situations, are longer, and if cul¬ 
tivated with care they would probably flourish still 
more vigorously. The plants grow in bunches 
close together, and as many as 250 roots spring 
from one bunch. In old plants the decayed roots 
of successive shoots form a cushion of dry entang¬ 
led fibres, which raise the bunch from the ground. 
This cushion sometimes attains to a great size and 
height, so that a person standing in a patch of old 
tussac may be quite sheltered and concealed. The 
cushion is dry and inflammable; and where the 
