A USEFUL FAMII.Y. 1 83 



measured from the surface of the ground. How far below 

 the bottom of the bowlder is is not known. The weight 

 must be nearly 2000 tons. A little larger than this bowlder, 

 and probably the largest in the immediate vicinity of Man- 

 chester is one situated near the west bank of Manter brook 

 on the line between Manchester and lyondonderry. This 

 is 38 feet long, 35 feet wide and 19 feet high above the sur- 

 face of the ground. The weight must be in the vicinity of 

 2500 tons. It is composed of the ordinary gneiss so com- 

 mon throughout New Hampshire. This bowlder was so 

 prominent a feature of the landscape in early days that the 

 deeds of land in its vicinity in colonial times usually locat- 

 ed one bound as such a distance in such a direction from 

 "The Great Rock" 



A Useful Family. V. 



BY FREDERICK W. BATCHELDER. 



As a rule, the most valuable grasses require a rich soil. 

 It does not follow that all grasses of poor soils are useless 

 to mankind. Certain grasses which are worthless for any 

 of the purposes I have hitherto noted have a peculiar val- 

 ue, due to the character of their underground stems and 

 their rootstalks and roots. These grasses are the "sand- 

 binders." Their value has long been recognized, and at 

 the present day they are objects of renewed interest for 

 economic reasons. 



There are in various parts of the world tracts of land 

 which consist wholly of sand. In our own country, while 

 we have no great desert like the African Sahara, old atlases 

 of the United States to the contrary notwithstanding, we 

 have a great many small deserts. Years ago, one of these 

 existed in the town of Hudson, near the Nashua bridge. 

 The loose sand drifted in such quantities as to block the 



