12 
ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 
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Two hundred and fifteen distinct species of grasses are capable of being cultivated i 
Great Britain, and one hundred and thirty-three are proved to be indigenous on tlv 
island. Mr. Flint describes one hundred and twenty-one varieties as growing in tt 
State of Massachusetts. Prof. Torrey in the “Natural History of New York” d< 
scribes forty varieties of the genus Poo,, twenty-seven of the genus Aqroatis a tot; 
for the State of one hundred and twenty-five varieties. A report and description ( 
the varieties growing in that State will be found in the Transactions of the Stat 
Agricultural Society for the year 1853, reported by Prof. Lapham. 
This wide diffusion of the grasses is due in some degree to the care which natui 
takes for their production and protection. The seeds of some varieties are provide 
with hooks, by which they attach themselves to the hair and wool of grazing animals 
and to the clothes of man, by which they are transported to regions widely remot 
from their origin. Their seeds, which form the favorite food for many birds ar 
retained m their stomachs, and carried many hundreds of miles before they are voider 
they then germinate under favorable circumstances, and thus the grasses of wide 
remote regions are interchanged. The seeds are very light and highly polished, whic 
fits them tor diffusion through wide areas by the combined agencies of the winds o 
winter, and the frozen snows. Many of them are furnished with rhizomas or creepin 
roots winch send forth many shoots and rapidly cover the ground where a singl 
stem has once effected a lodgement. The annual decay of the stems afford a constan 
supply of food for the successive growths of the plant. Nature has also provided fo 
tneir protection after their establishment, in various ways. A large proportion of th 
species are perennials; they are uninjured by cropping and the laceration of thei 
herbage, which is soon replaced by the internal energies of the plant; indeed, thi 
very laceration, which would utterly destroy many families of plants, is really neces 
sary.tor the most vigorous growth of many species of grass, and is essential to thei 
continuance on sandy soil. . The creeping roots, though bruised and torn by the hear 
tread of cattle, are not injured, and the winter’s cold and summer’s heat are aliki 
unable to extinguish the principle of life within. 
Now let us consider the early attempts at improving the grasses and grass lands 
Down to a comparatively recent period, no attempts were made in England fo 
the improvement of grass land. The only thing the husbandman did for them, was t< 
let them severely alone. Mr. Sinclair tells us that “ the first mention that is made o 
rag or rye grass m the early books of British husbandry, is in the “Mystery of Hus 
bandry, discovered and laid open, by J. Warlide, A. D 1681. In this work he speak; 
in this wise : “Bag grass [lolium perenne) , by which they improve any cold, sour clay 
weeping land, which is unfit for sanfoin, ( Hedysarum onobryehis ), hath the precedent 
or an other grasses.” Then there are lucern ( Medicago sativa), clover, (trifoleum pra 
tense) tares [vechia sativa ), spurry ( spuergula arvensis ), and trefoil ( lotus corniculatus ) 
which includes all the forage plants that he enumerates. His account of the rat 
glass concludes as follows : “ Four acres of this grass hath yielded twenty quarters ol 
seed and fourteen loads of fodder, besides the spring and autumn whereon six or eighi 
cattle usually grazed.” At this time the only species of grass ever sown artificially 
was the rag grass, and its culture had only then commenced. From this beginning 
rag grass gradually spread over the whole kingdom, and ever since has maintainec 
its high reputation. It continued to be the sole grass sown until the close of tkf 
Ameiican levolution, when timothy seed was introduced by the returning soldiers 
tiom this country, A. D. 1776.to 1780. Orchard grass ( dactylis glomeraea) began to be 
introduced about the same time. Since that period the number of varieties undei 
cultivation has steadily increased. The publication of the “ H< rtus G-ramincus Wobur- 
nensis , under the patronage of the Duke of Bedford, caused a great improvement in 
the management of grass lands, and shed a flood of light upon the management oi 
meadows and pastures in England, although its author proceeded upon erroneous 
principles m determining the relative nutritive values of the different species of 
glass. 
The making of artificial meadows began to receive attention even from the first 
settlement of this country. In a work written by Jared Elliott, in 1747, the cultiva¬ 
tion of timothy and fowl meadow ( Poa serotina ), is very strongly recommended. The 
latter grass is especially lauded as in many respects better than any other. Timothy 
and red top were sown very extensively, and sea weeds, and fish were successfully 
used as manures. Although we were thus early in forming artificial meadows and 
pastures, our subsequent improvement has not kept pace with our early enterprise, 
and we, are far behind England and Scotland in this department of husbandry. 
Eet us now turn our attention to the economical importance of the grasses. We 
have means of ascertaining with precision what are the proportional areas of the pas¬ 
tures and meadows of Wisconsin. We know that in the State of New York the pro- 
poition is 1.35 acres of pasture to one acre of meadow, and the total areas of improved 
land is to the total areas of grass land as 1.46 to one. This proportion will hold good 
tor “J_ e Eastern and Middle States in relation to the areas of grass land, but in West¬ 
ern States I find that the statistics do not agree in their ratios, as some of them give 
