Marsh grass

“ By the wet furrows the ground has still a brownish tint, for there the floods lingered and discoloured the grass. Near the ditch pointed flags are springing up, and the thick stems of the marsh marigold. From bunches of dark green leaves slender stalks arise and bear the golden petals of the marsh buttercups, the lesser celandine. If the wind blows cold and rainy they will close, and open again to the sunshine. ”

“ With the yellowish green marsh grass for a background, they make a most interesting study in black and white, which, coupled with that clear penetrating note of alarm when danger is discovered, cannot fail to impress one. ”

“ Then the terrible mud smothers and chokes them, and they and the other fish die, and their empty shells cover the muddy bottom of the still water.
All this may take years and years, yet the change goes steadily on. The grasses grow higher, and higher, and tiny spears of marsh grass stand up out of water where once it was quite deep. The lake is filling up, and year by year the grass spreads over the water. ”

“ He will then cut a bundle of the coarsest and wettest marsh grass he can find—naturally—as ten minutes’ work will produce a bigger bundle than half an hour’s cutting of the fine, short grass which is so infinitely better. He will then squat down on the ground and engage in a process that is absolutely blood-curdling to the unaccustomed onlooker; the grass is taken in small bundles, grasped by his left hand, while his right foot is firmly planted on the ends of the stalks ”

“ Between the dunes and the marshes, an irregular width of salt-hay land extends from the sand slopes to the marshier widths of tidal land along the creeks. Each region has its own grasses, the meadows being almost a patchwork (16) of competing growths. In the late summer and the autumn the marsh lavender, thin-strewn but straying everywhere, lifts its cloud of tiny sun-faded flowers above the tawny, almost deer-coloured grasses. The marsh islands beyond are but great masses of thatch grass rising from floors of sodded mud and sand ”

“ The grass ought to have been alive with the birds: it was breeding-time. But I think the high tides must have delayed them or driven them elsewhere, for I did not find an egg, nor hear at nightfall their colony-cry, so common at dusk and dawn in the marshes just across on the coast about Townsend's Inlet. There at sunset in nesting-time one of the rails will begin to call—a loud, clapping roll; a neighbor takes it up, then another and another, the circle of cries widening and swelling until the whole marsh is a-clatter.
Heading my way with a slow, labored stroke came one of the fish-hawks. ”

“ At a certain stage of growth, grass land is probably a more energetic evaporator and refrigerator than even the forest, but this powerful action is exerted, in its full intensity, for a comparatively short time only, while trees continue such functions, with unabated vigor, for many months in succession. Upon the whole, it seems quite certain, that no cultivated ground is as efficient in tempering climatic extremes, or in conservation of geographical surface and outline, as is the soil which nature herself has planted. ”

“ It is undoubtedly true that loose soils, stripped of vegetation and broken up by the plough or other processes of cultivation, may, until again carpeted by grasses or other plants, absorb more rain and snow-water than when they were covered by a natural growth; but it is also true that the evaporation from such soils is augmented in a still greater proportion. Rain scarcely penetrates beneath the sod of grass-ground, but runs off over the surface ”

“ When the turf or peat has been cut, leaving water less than a yard deep, Equisetum limosum grows at once, and is followed by the second class of marsh plants mentioned above. Their roots do not become detached from the bottom in such shallow water, but form ordinary turf or peat. These processes are so rapid that a thickness of from three to six feet of turf is formed in half a century, and many men have lived to mow grass where they had fished in their boyhood, and to cut turf twice in the same spot. ”

“ It is true that these trees, planted as most of them are at such distances as to admit of cultivation, or of the growth of grass among them, are but an inadequate substitute for the thick and shady wood; but they perform to a certain extent the same offices of absorption and transpiration, they shade the surface of the ground, they serve to break the force of the wind, and on many a steep declivity, many a bleak and barren hillside, the chestnut binds the soil together with its roots, and prevents tons of earth and gravel from washing down upon the fields and the gardens. ”

“ On one side rich woods come down to the water's edge; and on the other, marshes stretch for miles and miles, with waving reeds, white cotton grasses, and many-coloured marsh grasses, which vary in tint and colour as the wind waves them or the cloud-shadows pass over them. Taking the punt, they explore a perfect labyrinth of dykes and pools, pushing their way among water-lilies and arrow-heads, and gathering many flowers of every hue; and after such a pleasant day, even the ladies are satisfied with the safety of the lads. ”

“ This marsh land varies in width. In some portions of the river it appears to extend for about two miles on either side; in other parts farther than the eye can reach. In all cases the main country is a dead flat; now blazing and smoking beyond the limit of marshes, as the natives have fired the dry grass in all directions. Reeds, similar in appearance to bamboos but distinct from them, big water-grass, like sugarcanes, excellent fodder for the cattle, and the ever-present ambatch, cover the morasses. Innumerable mosquitoes. ”

“ A low rock-strewn marsh, covered with tall, rank grass stretched away before them for two or three miles before it met the higher, heavily-wooded mainland. Here and there the marsh was dotted with small, island-like clumps of dark green cedar trees, and, picking up the light, little negro in his strong, young arms, Charley headed for the nearest of these, followed by his exhausted companions. The passage was made with difficulty; low needle-pointed rocks strewed the way, [150] and here and there lay pools of soft, boggy mud, tenanted by repulsive, swollen looking moccasins. ”

“ Hard in their wake, riding the first stinging northwesters, raced the brant from far Arctic islands to fatten on succulent goose-grass before their long pilgrimages south to their winter home on the great gulf. ”

“ The withered tips of the grasses scarcely differ in color from the dirty yellow-brown moss, and the green of the lower part of the stalks appears as through a veil. Nothing can be of a more dreary monotony than this vegetation when spread over a wide surface; but in the hardly perceptible depressions of the plains where the spring water is able to collect, a fresher green gains the upper hand, the stalks are not only longer, but stand closer together, and the grass, growing to a height of three or even four inches, usurps the place of the moss. ”

“ The falling of the older and weaker trees, in consequence of the long–continued wetness, and the want of a steady and complete outlet for the accumulated waters, would soon cause the place to assume the character of a marsh,—neither land nor lake,—and now semi–amphibious plants would not be slow to spring up, for wherever such conditions of surface are exchanged for dry ones, plants of that nature appear as if by magic. ”

“ We cannot speak confidently as to the time needed to form each thin layer of vegetable soil, marsh peat, or estuarine silt. On comparing the submerged land-surfaces, however, with similar accumulations formed within known periods, such as marsh soils grown behind ancient embankments, or forest-growth over flats silted up at known dates, we can learn something. ”

“ Moreover, the action of ruderal plants—including grasses—is to completely alter the nature of the poor soil and gradually fit it for other plants. Coverings of grass greatly affect the actions of heat and sunshine on the surface soil, and modify the effects of radiation and evaporation, to say nothing of the penetrating and other effects of the roots.
Rhizomes and stolons break up stiff soils; and every engineer and forester knows how useful certain grasses are in keeping the surface-soil from being washed down by heavy rains on steep hill-sides or embankments. ”

“ A stranger is apt to fancy that marsh scenery is uninteresting; but the very reverse is the case; it has a beauty of its own, which is seldom even monotonous, so incessant is the play of sunshine and shadow over the wide sedgy flats and shallows. The marsh vegetation is luxuriant, even tropical in some of the more sheltered nooks among the reeds; grasses are abundant, and so are flowers, which often grow in broad patches, and warm with vivid gleams of colour the low-toned landscape. ”

“ The sparse vegetation on the slope consists of frailejones, blueberry-bushes and tall, tough grass; stunted trees and bushes, all covered with moss, grow in the deeper ravines. Hunting in these latter places was a never-ending source of delight; there was no water so it was possible to walk unrestrictedly underneath the green vault of brush which fringed the sides and met overhead. Many little mammals’ trails zigzagged over the moss-covered rocks, and burrows opened into the steep banks ”

“ The engineer drains ponds at a great expense by lowering the surface of the water; nature attains the same end, gratuitously, by raising the level of the soil without depressing that of the water; but she proceeds more slowly. There are, in the Landes, marshes where this natural filling has a thickness of four metres, and some of them, at first lower than the sea, have been thus raised and drained so as to grow summer crops, such, for example, as maize."—Boitel, Mise en valeur des Terres pauvres, p. ”

“ Sandy soils frequently rest on a tenacious subsoil, at a moderate depth, as is usually seen in the pine plains of the United States, where pools of rain-water collect in slight depressions on the surface of earth the upper stratum of which is as porous as a sponge. In the open grounds such pools are very soon dried up by the sun and wind; in the woods they remain unevaporated long enough for the water to diffuse itself laterally until it finds, in the subsoil, crevices through which it may escape, or slopes which it may follow to their outcrop or descend along them to lower strata. ”

“ The beach grass was rooted everywhere in the hillocks next the shore, and appeared to be gradually working its way inland. I attempted to pull some of it up, but only the stalks remained in my hand. Each leaf is like a sword-blade. Pass your hand across the under-surface, and it is prickly and rough. What there formerly was of soil has been growing thinner and thinner by being blown into the sea. Unlike the buffalo-grass of the plains, the beach grass possesses little nutriment, though cattle crop the tender shoots in spring. ”

“ The sand, blown over the Delta and the cultivated land higher up the stream during the inundation, is covered or mixed with the fertile earth brought down by the river, and no serious injury is sustained from it. That spread over the same ground after the water has subsided, and during the short period when the soil is not stirred by cultivation or covered by the flood, forms a thin pellicle over the surface as far as it extends, and serves to divide and distinguish the successive layers of slime deposited by the annual inundations. ”

“ The deep-lying veins and sheets of water, supplied by infiltration from often comparatively distant sources, send up moisture by capillary attraction, and the pavement prevents the soil beneath it from losing its humidity by evaporation. Hence, city-grown trees find moisture enough for their roots, and though plagued with smoke and dust, often retain their freshness, while those planted in the open fields, where sun and wind dry up the soil faster than the subterranean fountains can water it, are withering from drought. ”

“ Across the pools, the rocks, and the brush growth lay the trunks of monster trees prostrated by the winds, storms, and decaying processes of nature. Trees were piled on trees in huge, insurmountable barriers, each one bearing on the other with a crushing force that tore through the limbs and logs, and pressed the massive pile down deep into the soft vegetation of the marsh. ”

“ The turf on a putting-green must be dense and low, and tough enough to stand a lot of rough usage. A combination of Rhode Island Bent and Creeping Bent is about the best thing for this purpose. To check up, just refer back to your schedule and see what it says regarding the qualities of these grasses.
The soil on a putting-green should be of a sandy nature. This keeps the grass stunted through lack of much food, and consequently better fits it for its purpose.
Never buy grass seed by the bushel. ”

“ Then comes the fair green, a more or less level grassy stretch extending to within a few yards of the putting green, which contains the hole or cup. On either side of the fair green is the rough, which is long grass, sand, water and other hazards. Usually the putting green is surrounded by traps such as sand pits, bunkers or mounds of earth and water hazards, while often a brook trickles through the fair green. ”

“ It floats about as driven by the wind, gradually increasing in thickness by the decay of its annual crops of vegetation, and in about half a century reaches the bottom and becomes fixed. If it has not been invaded in the meantime by men or cattle, trees and arborescent plants, Alnus, Salix, Myrica, etc., appear, and these contribute to hasten the attachment of the turf to the bottom, both by their weight and by sending their roots quite through into the ground. ”