AQUATIC PLANTS 



SMALL ponds containing areas of twenty acres or less, and 

 whose number is legion, dot the surface of the states of 

 Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. Many of these 

 ponds should be set aside as sanctuaries for wildfowl, where all 

 shooting or other forms of molestation are strictly prohibited, and 

 where our wild ducks of many species would find a quiet resting 

 place and food during their migrations, inducements that eventu- 

 ally would tempt many that now journey to the far North Country, 

 to tarry and nest. 



The northern breeding grounds of many species of wild ducks 

 are becoming more limited in area each year. The demands of the 

 agriculturist must be fulfilled, with the result that marshes and 

 swamps, once the summer homes of myriads of wildfowl, have 

 been drained; and where the sedge-grass, cat-tails, and alders held 

 sway, now waves the wheat and corn. New England must offer a 

 home to these evicted wildfowl, and let us set about it. 



In travelling about our Southern New England country it is 

 disheartening to note the dearth of wildfowl about the lakes and 

 ponds. Scores of sheets of water are passed while journeying by 

 trolley or motor car, upon whose blue surface float no groups of 

 wild ducks. Protection on their feeding grounds and the planting 

 of aquatic plants attractive as food, are two rational methods by 

 which these barren wastes of water may be populated with charming 

 wildfowl, that add so much to the beauty of the country by their 

 presence. 



There are three species of aquatic plants eagerly sought after by 

 wildfowl as food, all of which are fairly easily grown in this section 

 of New England. These are wild rice, wild celery and wapato, or 

 duck potato. 



Wild rice may be sown late in the autumn just before the ponds 

 are frozen, or early in the spring soon after the ponds are free of 

 ice. When wild rice seed is to be sown in the spring time, it should 

 be kept moist until the time arrives for the sowing. If allowed to 

 become dry, it will not germinate. Wild rice is naturally repro- 

 duced from the seed that shatters out from the ripe head in the 



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