January 1904.] Sand-binding Grasses. 139 



BOTANICAL DEPARTMENT. 



H. F. ROBERTS, M. 8., Botanist. 



Sand-binding Grasses. 



ONE important matter to consider, for owners of sanded lands which 

 are too deeply covered to be successfully handled in an agricultural way, 

 and in which an accumulation of humus is an essential preliminary to 

 its subsequent use for agricultural purposes, is the introduction of what 

 are known as sand-binding grasses. A grass, to be a " sand-binder, n 

 must be, first, a perennial, and must have the habit either of sending 

 out creeping stems below the ground, from which the aerial shoots 

 come up, or of sending out runners above the surface of the ground, 

 or both. As a matter of fact, the true "sand-binders" spread prevail- 

 ingly by underground stems or rootstocks. By this means the plant 

 secures for itself greater protection against drought and the scorching 

 heat that often prevail in summer-time on the immediate surface of 

 sanded areas. The buffalo-grass, although it sends out runners which 

 in the course of a single season will extend from a foot to a foot and 

 one-half out from every side of the parent plant, is not adapted to 

 sandy regions, and is not available therefore for the present purpose. 

 It must further be remembered by farmers, that if they undertake to 

 plant sanded land with sand-binding grasses, it must not be done 

 primarily with an idea of getting immediate financial returns from 

 the grasses themselves. While there are some sand-grasses, such as 

 the sand blue-grass, that are available for hay, most of them have such 

 tough and wiry stems and such hard, coarse leaves that they are not 

 at all adapted to hay purposes, and others, such as the one above re- 

 ferred to, are not in the market. It is also the case that sand-grasses 

 do not commonly form a close turf on the soil, but cover it in rather 

 loose and open fashion, which of course means a small yield of hay 

 per acre. 



The real value of sand-binding grasses lies not in what they may 

 yield of themselves for pasture or forage, but in their ability to hold 

 the sand in position and keep it from drifting, and to lay the founda- 

 tion for an agricultural soil by the accumulation of humus. While 

 there are a number of species of sand-grasses, there are comparatively 

 few, the seeds of which are a commercial article. Foremost among 

 these should be placed the beach-grass or marram grass, Ammophila 



