WIRE GRASS. 293 



articles of clothing, all of which are enduring. The ar- 

 ticles made from it are not only useful, hut they are 

 unique and attractive : even ladies' hats are now heing 

 manufactured from this material. 



Disfrihufion. — Wire grass is native to America. 

 ^Vhile more or less of it is found in various states and 

 provinces, the chief centres of production at the present 

 time are the numerous and large marshes of Xorthern 

 Minnesota, ^NTorthern Wisconsin and Manitoba in Can- 

 ada. The area of this grass is decreasing in some quar- 

 ters with the gradual recession of the waters of the 

 marshes. In others it is increasing as in the gradual 

 lowering of the waters of lakes with sedgy shores. 



Soils. — This gTass grows only in peat soils, or, more 

 properly in marshes or bogs, in which the peat is de- 

 cayed more or less but only on and near the surface. It 

 is essential to the life of this grass that a certain de- 

 gree of watery saturation shall be preserved during 

 much of the year : and yet the water should not rise 

 much above the surface of the ground, for any consid- 

 erable length of time or the gi-ass would perish. On 

 the other hand where too little water is present and 

 for too short a portion of the year, wire grass will give 

 way to other forms of grass, possessed of higher food 

 value. 



Place in the Rofation. — Of course, wire grass is not 

 a rotation plant, in the ordinary sense in which the 

 term is used, and yet there is a sort of rotation in which 

 nature has placed it. In the gradual evolution of the 

 lower forms of plant life, it has a place between the 

 mosses and bushes, which cover muskegs and marshes; 



