4 MISC. PUBLICATION 200, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



conduits. Sections of the stem closed at one end by the partition 

 form convenient vessels for holding water. Much of the furniture 

 and many of the utensils and implements used by the Malays are 

 made wholly or in part of bamboo. Slender bamboo stems are famil- 

 iar to us in the form of fishing rods and walking canes. Shoots of 

 PhyUostachys edulis, Bambusa beecheyana, and other species of bamboo 

 are a choice vegetable in the Orient and an expensive dainty in the 

 United States. 



Brooms are made from the seed heads of broomcorn, a variety of 

 sorghum. Leghorn hats are made of a kind of wheat straw cut young 

 and bleached. Straw of rice and oats is used for matting and for 



hats. . 



Starch and alcohol are made from the gram of maize, wheat, and 

 other cereals. The stalks, grain, and cobs of maize furnish a great 

 variety of products, such as wallboard, glucose, oil, red rubber, and 

 corncob pipes. 



SOIL-HOLDING GRASSES 



Grasses used to hold soil in place and prevent erosion by wind or 

 water possess strong creeping rhizomes. 



Sand-binding grasses in addition are able to grow up through the 

 deepening sand. The most effective sand binders for seacoast 

 drifting sand are the European beachgrass (Ammophila arenaria) 

 and its & American relative (A. breviligulata) . The dunes of the Nether- 

 lands, southwestern France, northern and western Denmark, and other 

 parts of Europe and areas on Cape Cod are planted with beachgrass. 

 These fixed dunes act as barriers, protecting the land behind them. 

 The land now occupied by Golden Gate Park, once an area of drifting 

 sand, was first held in place with beachgrass and later planted to 

 shrubs and trees. Calamovilja longrfolia and Redfieldia flexuosa are 

 effective native sand binders on sand dunes of the interior. 



Grasses with strong rhizomes are used to hold the sides of cuts and 

 banks and to protect them against erosion. Bermuda grass in the 

 South and quackgrass (Agropyron repens) in the North have been 

 used successfully for this purpose. Rhizome-bearing species of 

 Elymus and Agropyron have been used in the Northwest to hold 

 railway embankments along the Columbia River. 



Shallow-water marshes and lagoons are in many places being 

 converted into dry land by native plants growing therein that accumu- 

 late soil and gradually raise the level of the bottom. Grasses, espe- 

 cially species of Spartina, play an important part in the process. 

 Recently artificial plantings of S. townsendii have been used with 

 great success in the south of England, northern France, and in parts 

 of the Netherlands to convert marshes and mud flats along the coast 

 into dry land. 



GRASSES FOR LAWNS AND GOLF COURSES 



The lawn is a most important part of a well-planned landscape, 

 park, or garden. For the humid regions of the Northern States, 

 Kentucky bluegrass, also used for pasture, is the best-known lawn 

 grass. Rough bluegrass (Poa trivialis) is often used as a lawn grass 

 in shady places. In the Southern States Bermuda grass takes the 

 place of bluegrass. Two other species are becoming prominent as 

 grasses for lawns and putting greens, creeping bent (Agrostis palus- 

 tris), and colonial bent (A tenuis). Along southern coasts St. 



