314 INTRODUCTION TO BOTANY 



The manufacture of paper and many articles of commerce 

 from wood pulp has become an industry of such prominence 

 as to endanger the supply of the softer timbers from which 

 the pulp is made. Straw and cornstalks are sometimes used 

 in making paper. 



296. The grasses. Grasses contribute to industries already 

 mentioned and others yet to be discussed, but in this connec- 

 tion we have in mind those grasses that are used directly or 

 indirectly as food for domesticated animals. The significance 

 of pasturage can be seen by any one who observes the use 

 made of grasslands on any farm or ranch. Grasses furnish 

 the chief or entire food supply for most domesticated animals 

 throughout spring, summer, and autumn, and during winter 

 dried grasses (hay) and the grain from grasses complete the 

 food supply. Wild grass has been depended upon extensively, 

 but agriculturists have found that grass production and hay 

 crops improve as readily under scientific management in a state 

 of domestication as do other crops. Native wild grasses, un- 

 cared for, often produce but a small percentage of the pastur- 

 age or hay that selected grasses (as blue grass and timothy), 

 when properly planted and cared for, may produce. 1 



297. The cereals. The grain-producing members of the 

 grass family, as wheat, oats, corn, 2 rye, barley, and rice, are 

 the chief agricultural plants of the earth. The wild ancestors 

 of some of these cereals are known, as in the case of wheat, 

 oats, and rye. In some cases, as wheat, our present cultivated 

 types do not differ widely from the ancestral types in size 

 of heads or grains, but they differ enormously in the range of 

 territory over which they are grown and in the amount grown 

 on any single unit of area. In extending the range of any 

 plant beyond its native growing place new problems arise, 

 such as adapting the soil to it and preventing the plant and 



1 "The Improvement of Mountain Meadows," Bulletin 127, Bureau of 

 Plant Industry, U.S. Dept. Agr., 1908. 



2 E. M. East, " A Chronicle of the Tribe of Corn," Popular Science 

 Monthly, 82 : 225-236. 1913. 



