AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
Designed to improve all Classes interested in Soil Culture. 
AGRICULTURE IS THE MOST HEALTHFUL, THE MOST USEFUL, AND THE MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF MAN —WASHINGTON 
ORARfGE JUDD, A. 31., 
EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. 
is ®§a. 
$1.00 PER ANNUM, IN ADVANCE. 
SINGLE NUMBERS lO CENTS. 
VOL. xvn.— No. 4.] 
NEW-YORK, APRIL, 1858. [new series— No. 135. 
{g^Biisiness Office at No. 1 89 Walefst. 
S^For Contents, Terms, &c. see page 128. 
1^ For Business Notices, see page 128. 
^For Advertisements, see pages 124-7. 
[copy right secured.] 
Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1858, 
by Orange Judd, in the Clerk’s Office of the District 
Court of the JJnited States for the Southern District of 
New-York. 
Special Note to Editors. 
The above Copy-Right is only taken out as a security 
against certain literary poachers, who constantly draw 
upon the pages of this Journal, (mainly original,) without 
giving a shadow of credit. 
N. B.—Every Journal is invited freely to copy 
any and all desirable articles, and no use or advantage 
will be taken of the Copy-Right, wherever each article 
or illustration is duly accredited to the American Agri¬ 
culturist. ORANGE JUDD, Proprietor. 
April. 
“ See ! See! the shooting verdure spreads around ! 
Ye sons of men, with rapture view the scene ! 
On hill and dale, on meadow, field and grove, 
Clothed in soft mingling shades from light to daik, 
The wandering eye delighted roves untired. 
Dodsley. 
It is a glad sight to see the springing grass again. 
The snow has vanished from hill and plain, and 
the green blades are appearing above the russet 
mat in which their roots have slumbered through 
the long Winter. For months the processes of 
vegetation have been suspended, and plants have 
had their rest—a neeessary law of vegetable life, 
in the realms of Winter, arid in the lands, where 
endless Summer reigns. The rest is prolonged 
by the frost, not induced by it. And now the 
hybernation is over, the sun quickens that myste¬ 
rious principle of life in every living thing. The 
grasses are among the first to feel his genial in¬ 
fluences. On the very edge of the snow bank, 
the soft verdure steals, leaving no moment lost 
between the retreating Winter, and the exultant 
Spring. The warm showers descend, the song of 
birds again breaks on the ear, and man goes forth 
with joy again, to tread the softened furrows of 
his fields. Cold must be the heart that feels no 
glow of gratitude to the Creator, in this genial 
season. 
THE GRASSES, 
so common, that we hardly notice them, are 
among the most beautiful, and useful gifts of Prov¬ 
idence. They embrace nearly a sixth part of all 
the vegetable products of the earth, and are the 
food, mainly, of those animals most useful to man. 
They are most profusely scattered in the temper¬ 
ate zone, where they are cropped in Summer by 
ruminant animals, and, dried as hay, form their 
Winter food. The meats that come to our tables, 
are but grass transmuted into fat and muscle, so 
that it is a literal, as well as a Scriptural truth, that 
“ all flesh is grass.” 
Nothing can be more beautiful than these lowly 
plants in all stages of their growth, whether we 
examine them, one by one, or in masses ; with 
the naked eye, or with the microscope. They are 
indispensable in producing the pleasing effects of 
the landscape gardener, or painter. It is the 
charm of the scene upon canvas, that the carpet 
of verdure spreads everywhere, girdling the lake, 
fringing the stream, bordering the woodland, and 
receiving the shadows of tree, shrub and flower, 
that lie nowhere so beautifully as upon the green 
grass. It forms too the charm of every rural home, 
is the appropriate ground work of emerald, in 
which ever a gem of the lawn or the garden is 
set. The most tasteful border for the walk, the 
carriage drive, or the flower bed, is the green 
turf. The last finishing stroke to the country res¬ 
idence, is the lawn or grass plot; if not closely 
shaven, at least always kept clean and wearing a 
Sunday air. 
And these plants are as beautiful, examined in 
detail, as when seen upon the lawn or the mead¬ 
ow. They arrest attention in the early Spring, by 
their verdure, refreshing to the eye, after the long 
glare of Winter snow’s and ice. They challenge 
our admiration, when they begin to send up their 
flower stalks, and their waving plumes and spike- 
lets, in full bloom, change the hue of the landscape. 
Put these delicate flowerets under the glass, and 
the observer will find as much to charm the eye, 
as in the larger, and more showy occupants of the 
flower border. Hung with dew drops in the Sum¬ 
mer morning, nothing can be finer than the wav¬ 
ing plumes of Timothy, or the sparkling furze of 
red top. The mower has a feast for his eyes that 
the poet or the painter might envy. Worlds of 
glittering gems, flashing in the sunlight, go down 
before the sweep of his scythe, rivaling all that 
Golconda ever saw. 
Over four thousand varieties of the grasses 
have been noticed, by naturalists, and it is not at 
all probable, that these embrace all that are in ex¬ 
istence. Large parts of the earth have never 
been explored by man, capable of making correct 
observations of their vegetable and animal pro¬ 
ducts. Dr. Livingstone, in his journey across the 
African continent, frequently mentions immense 
plains, and natural meadows covered with luxu¬ 
riant vegetation. “ The grass of the Barotse val¬ 
ley is such a densely matted mass, that when 
‘laid ’ the stalks bear each other up, so that one 
feels as if walking upon the sheaves of a haystack, 
and the leches nestle under it to bring forth their 
young.” Again ascending the valley of the Leeba, 
he says “ the grass, which had been burned off 
and was growing again after the rains, was short 
and green, and all the scenery so like that of a 
carefully-tended gentleman’s park, that one is 
scarcely reminded that the surrounding region is 
in the hands of simple nature alone.” It is not at 
all improbable, that the more thorough exploration 
of this region, which he is now to undertake, un¬ 
der the patronage of the British government, will 
bring to the knowledge of the civilized world new 
grasses quite as valuable as any now cultivated. 
Indeed, this whole department of natural his¬ 
tory is comparatively unexplored. Of the grasses 
known to naturalists, but a small part have ever 
been cultivated, or had their qualities tested as 
forage plants. A hundred and fifty years ago, 
Herd’s grass was a wild plant on the banks of the 
Piscataway, without a name. Who knows but 
that many other grasses among these known to 
naturalists may yet prove as valuable as this 1 
Something, over two hundred varieties have been 
catalogued and cultivated in England alone. 
Hardly a tithe of that number even have been 
adequately tried in this country. A dozen sorts, 
probably, cover nineteen twentieths of all the 
cultivated meadow land from Maine to Texas. It 
can hardly be supposed, that so limited a number 
meets, in the best manner possible, all the wants 
of so great a variety of soil and climate. This is 
one of the pressing wants of our agriculture, ex¬ 
perimental farms, where the value of new grass¬ 
es, and kindred questions can be determined. A 
single new grass, that would add but an extra 
yield of a hundred pounds to the acre, would add 
millions of dollars annually, to the productive 
wealth of the nation. 
The best cultivators are much divided in opin¬ 
ion, as to the best time of seeding land to grass. 
The old practice of Spring seeding, which pre¬ 
vailed almost universally fifty years ago, was 
brought from England by our fathers. It is, per¬ 
haps, the best season in that comparatively moist 
and cool climate. But in our hot, and sometimes 
dry Summers, it is found, that the seed, sown 
with oats and Spring wheat, does not 
catch well. It is cnoked by the grain in the early 
part of the season, and, if August and September 
happen to be dry, many of the plants die out. This 
fact has led many close observers to seed down 
their lands, in the latter part of August and Sep¬ 
tember, and to give the seed, the full benefit of a 
first start. Sometimes it is sown with turnips, oi 
with Winter grain. Where it is desirable to keep 
the land in grass, the sward is turned' over with 
a Michigan plow, a dressing of manure is har¬ 
rowed in, and the seed sown, and left to take caie 
of itself. Even where no manure is applied it is 
found to pay to turn over the sod and re-seed. 
But Spring seeding with grain is sun me pre¬ 
vailing practice with the mass of our farmers. 
For clover, it is pretty generally conceded to be 
the best time, and for ground well prepared, deep, 
and moist, we have little doubt, that it is a time 
good enough for all the grasses, if they can have 
the field. The practice of taking a grain crop, 
after the soil has been prepared for grass, is a 
pernicious one, and is on the wane with all good 
farmers. The grasses want the full benefit of all 
the sun, and all the rain, from the first start, and 
are dependent upon these for their future luxu¬ 
riance, and good quality. The ground will by no 
means be unproductive the first season. We cut 
very good herd’s grass last July, from seed sown 
in April. 
The economy of sowing a variety of grass seeds 
upon the same field, is now pretty well established. 
The clover and herd’s grass are commonly sown 
