Java Edition:Grass Block (Item)
Grass blocks as an item weren't supposed to be available as an item until Beta 1.9 Prerelease 4-1 but were obtainable two times before this. This makes it a recontinued feature. Before Beta 1.9 Prerelease 4, getting grass into certain areas was very difficult or even impossible, like the nether. To get grass blocks into caves players had to create staircases of dirt and wait hours for the grass to slowly grow down there. From Beta 1.8 Pre-release until Silk Touch was added, players could also use endermen to pick up the grass block and move the endermen to the cave or high up region they wanted a grass block. The only way to get grass blocks in the nether before Silk Touch was using the grass block item.
Obtaining
Indev Item Chests
From Indev 20100124-1 to Indev 20100128 new worlds would generate with the Indev House, and inside the house were debug chests. Between Indev 20100124 and Indev 20100125 the chests held items in stacks of 99, while in Indev 20100128 the chests held items in stacks of 100. Grass Blocks were one of the such items that generated inside the debug chests.
Beta 1.6 Test Build 3 Debug Chests
In Beta 1.6 Test Build 3 new worlds would generate with 11 debug chests. Within the debug chests were a wide variety of items most of which were available in there full stacks some were not. Grass Blocks were one of the such items that generated inside the debug chests, Grass Blocks generated in the 1st and 4th chests from the left in the 4th and 13th slots respectively, in stacks of 64.
1st chest from the left.
4th chest from the left.
Silk Touch
With the introduction of Silk Touch in Beta 1.9 Pre-Release 4 until 24w20a (present), when mining Grass Blocks with a Silk Touch tool the block would drop itself instead of dirt. This does not work in 12w32a (1.4.2 Snapshot) due to a bug, causing this method to be discontinued for that snapshot.