HOLE : SOME INDIAN GRASSES AND THEIR CECOLOGY. 61 



old flowering culms and encouraging the production of vigorous young shoots from the 

 ground. It has frequently been noticed that the secondary culms which tend to spring 

 from the basal aerial nodes of the old flowering culms are of inferior vigour to those which 

 originate at or below the ground surface. Duthie writes as follows regarding this plant : 

 " In the Jhang Settlement Report it is stated to be found in the moistest portions of lands 

 adjoining the rivers, where it affords most valuable pasturage for buffaloes. The zamindars 

 of those parts say that if there were no Kanh (local vernacular for kans) there would be no 

 buffaloes, and they consider it too valuable to be used for thatching." 1 



D. — Economic Uses. 



50. The leaves of this species are much used 

 for thatching. 



This plant possesses considerable value on account of its capacity for fixing shifting 

 sand and unstable soil. Any node of a culm which is covered with soil as a rule at once 

 develops vigorous roots and usually also young culms, so that there is no danger of the 

 plant being smothered and killed by accumulations of sand and debris. 



In places where it is subjected to the force of a heavy current of water also, although 

 the aerial culms are frequently laid flat, these rapidly root at the nodes and produce new 

 shoots, so that the plant is able to hold the soil with great tenacity and to resist erosion 



well. 



A question connected with this species which is of the greatest economic importance is 

 that of its eradication from agricultural lands. In the Central Provinces this species is 

 responsible for the fact that large areas of valuable soil are at present out of cultivation. 



Agricultural soil is usually more or less loamy in which the plant assumes a spreading 

 habit and consequently firing in such cases would be of little value. 



The only possible way of attacking the plant appears to consist in some remedy which 

 will starve the subterranean portions of the culms and thus prevent the appearance of 

 vigorous new shoots. 



The following plan might in some cases be efficacious : — 



(1) After flowering protect the areas from damage by fire or grazing and allow the 



young culms to develop as vigorously as possible. 



(2) About the middle of the following July the areas would ordinarily be covered 



with a very heavy growth of grass including a proportion of very young 

 culms which commenced vigorous growth at the beginning of the rains. The 

 production of these young culms would tend to diminish the reserve materials 

 in the subterranean portions of the culms available for the production of new 

 culms. The grass should at this period be cut over as close to the ground as 

 possible and the cut grass should be left lying on the area. 



1 FMr Grasses of Northern India by J. P. Duthie, p. 25. 



L 61 ] 



