Excerpt from The Agricultural Grasses and Forage Plants of the United States: And Such Foreign Kinds as Have Been Introduced; With an Appendix on the Chemical Composition of Grasses, by Clifford Richardson, and a Glossary of Terms Used in Describing Grasses Sir: Herewith I present a Report on the Agricultural Grasses and Forage Plants of the United States, with illustrations. This report is largely a revised and enlarged edition of the "Agricultural Grasses of the United States" published by this Department in 1884. In the present report the principal forage plants, other than grasses, which are employed in agriculture, are treated of. The purpose is to give plain, general descriptions of the plants, together with practical notes and observations from persons who have tested them in actual cultivation or who have given them special investigation. The larger portion of the plants treated of are natives of the United States, but such foreign species as have been tried here have also received proper notice. The great extent of this country, with its extraordinary diversities of climate and soil, makes necessary a corresponding diversity in the subjects and methods of agriculture. With respect particularly to grasses and forage plants adapted to different sections of the country we are yet in the infancy of our knowledge, and must patiently and intelligently conduct such experiments as will give us the precise information we need. Every farmer and stock-raiser in the country is interested in this subject, and it has been the endeavor of the writer to present to the attention of such persons in any part of the country some grasses or forage plants suitable to their wants. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.