The agricultural assessment of permanent pastures is hampered by 2 difficulties : the length and tediousness of the botanical surveys, and the problem of relating them to pertinent agricultural values. The method proposed here makes it possible to assess the use value of a pasture in half an hour. A simplified method of doing botanical surveys, based on the simple determination of the dominant grasses in a given pasture, complemented by a functional approach of the plants, shortens the time needed for the diagnosis of its agricultural value. It was compared with 2 other traditional survey methods. The simplification does not alter the 2 characters studied (proportion of grasses; proportion of each functional grass type) that serve in the assessment of the use value of the pastures when the functional typology is applied (assessment of the productivity, of the seasonal distribution of the production, of the forage quality, etc.). A tabulating device is proposed for the recording of the data and for an easier identification of the pasture type.