Cottage Economy, to Which is Added The Poor Man's FriendCobbett, William
General
Cottage Economy, to Which is Added The Poor Man's Friend
Cobbett, William
Agriculture; Home economics; Poor laws -- Great Britain
8.} { Anthoxanthum Odoratum; or, Sweet
13.} 8 and 13 { scented Vernal grass.
9.} { Agrostis Canina; or, Brown Bent
14.} 9 and 14 { grass.
O.--These names are those given at the Botanical Garden _at Kew_. But the
same English names are not in the country given to these sorts of grass.
The _Fiorin grass_, the _Yellow Oat-grass_, and the _Brown-Bent_, are all
called _couch-grass_; except that the latter is, in Sussex, called _Red
Robin_. It is the native grass of the _plains_ of Long Island; and they
call it _Red Top_. The _Ray-grass_ is the common field grass, which is,
all over the kingdom, sown with clover. The farmers, in a great part of
the kingdom, call it _Bent_, or _Bennett_, grass; and sometimes it is
galled _Darnel-grass_. The _Crested Dog's-tail_ goes, in Sussex, by the
name of _Hendonbent_; for what reason I know not. The _sweet-scented
Vernal-grass_ I have never, amongst the farmers, heard any name for. Miss
WOODHOUSE'S grass appears, from the _plants_ that I saw in the Adelphi, to
be one of the sorts of Couch-grass. Indeed, I am sure that it is a
Couch-grass, if the plants I there saw came from her seed. My son, who
went into Connecticut, who saw the grass growing, and who sent me home a
specimen of it, is now in England: he was with me when I cut the grass in
Sussex; and he says that Miss WOODHOUSE'S was a Couch-grass. However, it
is impossible to look at the specimens of straw and of plat which I have
sent you, without being convinced that there is no want of the raw
material in England. I was, after my first hearing of the subject, very
soon convinced that the grass grew in England; but I had great doubts as
to the capacity of our _sun_. Those doubts my own experiments have
completely removed; but then I was not aware of the great effect of the
_scalding_, of which, by the way, Miss WOODHOUSE had said nothing, and the
knowledge of which we owe entirely to my son James' journey into
Connecticut.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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