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PREFACE
The design or plan of this work is simply
the illustration of an idea which I have long entertained of the
requirements of a book on the grasses that would meet the wants and
merit the approval of the practical farmer. With this object in view, I
have made a selection of the most valuable of the true and artificial
grasses, and brought them out, as it were, in bold relief, in the first
and second parts of this work, thus bringing them in close proximity to
each other for the purpose of a close and thorough examination of their
respective merits. The analyses given are those made by Professor Way,
of the Royal Agricultural Society, and are universally acknowledged to
be the most reliable ones ever made of the grasses. By a careful
comparison of the analysis the reader is made acquainted with the
comparative nutritive values of the grasses analyzed. Following this is
given the history of most of the valuable grasses from the different
periods of their introduction until the present time, and the experience
and directions for their successful cultivation by eminent practical
agriculturists in both countries. In order to avoid confusion in the
names of genera and species, and to assist in making the natural system
the standard one of this country, also to make this work acceptable in
part to the student of Botany. In the arrangement of genera and species.
Part third of this work I have followed, as Mr. Flint has done in his
valuable treatise, the natural order adopted by Professor Gray, to whose
Manual of Botany I refer the student for a specific description of the
grasses of no agricultural value. All grasses having an agricultural
value have their generic and specific character given in this work. And
lastly I have given suitable mixtures for various soils.
Although much has been said and written on the subject of grass culture,
there still remains a great work to be accomplished in this important
industry.
Perrennial grasses constituting rich, permanent meadows and pastures are
generally acknowledged to be the true basis of the agricultural
prosperity of a country, consequently the want of these must be a
serious inconvenience and drawback to agricultural communities. What
must then be thought of the practice, followed in many sections of the
country of making a speciality of growing Timothy, which is a
short-lived grass, and almost totally unfit for permanent pasture, to
the exclusion' of other grasses, many of them equaling it for hay crops,
but all surpassing it in permanency of meadow and pasturage.
If my humble efiorts will have the effect of inducing farmers to give
mixtures of those valuable grasses a fair trial, which must result in
individual wealth and general prosperity, clothing the fields with
luxuriant verdure and giving the country an appearance which would
betoken enlightened agricultural progress, I will not have labored in
vain.
JOHN HENDERSON
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