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.! 
297. The cereals. The grain-producing members of the 
grass family, as wheat, oats, corn,? 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 im 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. 
273i, M. East, ‘'.\ Chronicle of the Tribe of Corn,’’ Popular Science 
Monthly, 82: 225-236. 1913. 
