p. 7

5

There is much difference also among the different species of Cyperaceous plants; (as in the true grasses) with respect to their nutritive [effects] qualities, some being fine, tender, affording excellent hay; while others are coarse, wirey, and dry yielding but little nourishment to the cattle that eat them.

In one other important particular the wild hay differs from the tame, rendering it far less valuable as a permanent crop. By one of those wonderful adaptations of nature to [th] secure her own purposes which we so often find in the works of the [creator?] it is found that the more the grasses are croped, or pastured, the more their roots spread and become fastened in the soil, thus rendering them secure against destruction from this cause. But experience shown that the wild hay of our marshes will not continue long when thus cropped from year to year. In a few yars these natural meadows "run out" and cease to afford an adequate return for the labor of curring and curing the hay. The nature of the roots of these plants seems to be such as to require the sustaining effects of the annual growth of radical leaves or "aftermath"; hence if they are removed the roots gradually decay and die.

5

There is much difference also among the different species of Cyperaceous plants; (as in the true grasses) with respect to their nutritive [effects] qualities, some being fine, tender, affording excellent hay; while others are coarse, wirey, and dry yielding but little nourishment to the cattle that eat them.

In one other important particular the wild hay differs from the tame, rendering it far less valuable as a permanent crop. By one of those wonderful adaptations of nature to [th] secure her own purposes which we so often find in the works of the [creator?] it is found that the more the grasses are croped, or pastured, the more their roots spread and become fastened in the soil, thus rendering them secure against destruction from this cause. But experience shown that the wild hay of our marshes will not continue long when thus cropped from year to year. In a few yars these natural meadows "run out" and cease to afford an adequate return for the labor of curring and curing the hay. The nature of the roots of these plants seems to be such as to require the sustaining effects of the annual growth of radical leaves or "aftermath"; hence if they are removed the roots gradually decay and die.