SECRETARY'S REPORT. 35 



plete. The eastern part of the harbor is much exposed to 

 injury from the sand which now empties itself by the thousand 

 tons every north wind, into tlie east harbor. Unless there is 

 speedily another appropriation from congress, to be applied in 

 the direction of East Harbor, it is easy to foretel the fearful con- 

 sequences to it. 



" It may be proper to state," says the same .writer, " that this 

 town does much in the way of ' beach g-rassing- ' by its ' beach 

 grass committee^' whose duty it is to enter any man's enclosure, 

 summer or winter, and set out grass, if the sand is uncovered 

 and movable. By this means we are now rid of sand storms, 

 which were once the terror of the place, being something like 

 snow storms, for drifts which were to be removed. Our streets 

 are now hardened with clay which has been imported, and 

 instead of its being buried, as it would once have been in a few 

 days, I notice that the surveyors have to resort to sprinkling it 

 with sand in wet weather, so effectually has the culture of beach 

 grass answered its end. 



" The mode of culture is very simijle. The grass is pulled 

 up by hand and placed in a hole about a foot deep, and the sand 

 pressed down about it. These holes are dug about one foot and 

 a half apart. The spring is the usual time of planting, though 

 many do this work in the fall or winter. The roots of the 

 grass from which it soon covers the ground, are very long. I 

 have noticed them ten feet, and I suppose upon high hills they 

 extend down into wet sand." 



Many years ago the beach which connects Truro and Province- 

 town was broken over, and a considerable body of it swept 

 away. Beach grass was immediately planted, and the beach 

 was thus raised to sufficient height, and in some places into 

 hills. The operation of it is like that of brush or bushes, cut 

 and laid upon the ground, in accumulating snow in a drifting 

 wind. The sand is collected around the grass, and as the sand 

 rises, tlie grass also rises to overtop it, and will continue to 

 grow, no matter how high the sand hill may rise, and tliis pro- 

 cess goes on over the whole surface of the plantation, and thus 

 many acres have been raised far above their original level. 



A committee of the legislature appointed in 1852, to inquire 

 into the means of preserving Cape Cod Harbor, in speaking of 

 the beach between the ocean on the north, and the channel of 



