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comports that could be applied to an over cropped soil. Cases are found where the beds of shell marl are several feet in thickness and cover an extent of a number of acres of ground. In these beds have been detected nearly all the different species of shells that now live in and about the marshes, mingled occasionally with bones or horns of quadrupeds; but no new or extinct species of animal has yet been discovered among them in Wisconsin.

Most of the cyperaceae are cespitose; that is, they grow in bunches called tussocks, with open spaces around each branch. By carefully stepping from one tussock to another a person may often cross marshes that would otherwise be impassible. After the land is drained it is [often] frequently necessary to burn the tussocks before they can be destroyed. Dr. Darlington in his "Agricultural Botany" relates that he once hauled a quantity of them into his barnyard, with the hope that they might decompose and make manure; but they effectually resisted decomposition, and were tossed about the yard for years-as large & almost as indistructible as so many hatter's blocks.

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