38 TWENTY-SIXTH REPORT ON THE STATE MUSEUM. 
valuable be secured from the marsh even in its present condition 
than is now obtained? It is true, some of the firmer places are used 
as pasture ground for cattle, some of the finer sorts of sedges and 
grasses are cut and shipped to the New York market to be used as 
bedding for horses, and a large supply of flag leaves is annually 
gathered. But in all these ways an extremely small part of the pro- 
duce of the marshes is utilized. So very many tons of rank vegeta- 
tion are annually left to rot on the ground that it seems almost 
wasteful. I would suggest the propriety of instituting a series of 
experiments with a view to establish the value of some of the grasses 
which constitute such a large part of the vegetation of the marsh. 
Especially promising are the Indian rice, Zzania aquatica, and the 
reed-grass, Phragmites communis. These might be found, if cut 
early, to be equal or even superior in value to corn fodder, and the 
seeds of the former are almost sure to be a good grain for the fatten- 
ing of fowls. Having established the value of these grasses, it would 
seem to be but a trifling matter tosincrease their quantity to such an 
extent that they might be harvested with profit. 
The unusual destruction of vegetation in some localities last winter, 
and especially of hardy evergreens, has been a theme of considerable 
comment. It is not my purpose to discuss the various theories that 
have been advanced in explanation of the unusual occurrence, but 
simply to record a few interesting cases that have fallen under my 
own observation. 
In a certain locality, in the town of Sand Lake, there is a group of 
young pines, some of the trees being red pine, Pinus resinosa, and 
some white pine, Pinus strobus. None of the former were affected, 
but the latter had many of their branchlets winter-killed, thus indi- 
- eating that the former is a more hardy tree than the latter. 
The hilly region in the eastern part of Rensselaer county has for 
many years furnished the Albany market with a plentiful supply of 
wild blackberries, Rubus villosus, and wild raspberries, Rubus 
strigosus. Last summer the crop of the former was an entire failure, 
the briers being winter-killed, but of the latter there was an ordinary 
yield, thus indicating that the raspberry is more hardy than the black- 
berry. 
A young white-pine, standing in an opening between two clumps 
of trees, in such a position as to receive the full force of the strong 
north-west winds, had many of its branchlets on this exposed side 
killed, while those on the opposite side of the tree were comparatively 
