PAPER—CORDAGE 83 
forage of domesticated animals—the oat, for example, is chiefly 
cultivated for feeding horses; maize, and any kind of damaged 
grain, the offal of the flour-mills (sharps, pollard, and bran), the 
spent grain from breweries and distilleries, also the coombs, are all 
utilized as cattle-food, often in combination with the straw of the 
cereals. The grains of wild grasses are largely eaten by some 
kinds of birds, especially the Ga/dine or game birds, the Columbide 
or pigeons, various waterfowl, and the large family of the finches 
(Fringiliide) which have a short conical beak adapted for crush- 
ing hard seeds and grains. Mill-products, millet-grains (chiefly 
Setaria italica, Sorghum vulgare, and Panicum miliaceum), and 
maize-meal, are commonly used for feeding poultry. Phalaris 
canariensts is cultivated in the south of England, on the continent 
of Europe, and in North Africa, for the grains known as canary- 
seed, used for feeding cage-birds. 
Before cdsmissing this subject of the utility of grasses in furnish- 
ing food for man and the animals he has domesticated, we shall 
do well to pause for a little reflection upon its relation to the 
industry, commerce, and wealth of nations, as well as to man’s 
subsistence—our dependence not only upon the cereal grasses for 
our staple vegetable food, but indirectly upon the forage grasses 
for our supplies of animal food, viz. beef, mutton, venison, and 
dairy produce, as well as for various animal substances such as 
wool and hair, hides and skins, bone and horn, oil and tallow, used 
for textile and other manufactures (notably woollen fabrics and 
leather), or for domestic purposes—the large proportion of the 
world’s inhabitants engaged in agricultural (chiefly cereal culti- 
vation) and pastoral pursuits; in some countries 70 to go per 
cent. of the adult male population—the vast internal and foreign 
trade connected with the distribution of agricultural produce by 
land and sea—the numerous and important industries concerned 
in operating upon one or other form of this produce in order to 
prepare it for consumption; and lastly, the enormous capital 
employed in all these industrial activities, and the consequent 
accumulation of wealth. It is only when we take a comprehensive 
survey, such as we have indicated, that we are able to form some 
conception of the transcendent importance of the Graminee. 
The uses of grasses in the arts and manufactures, other than the 
manufacture of sugar and fermented drinks, though not for a 
moment, to be compared to their utility as a source of food, are 
nevertheless very numerous, and in some cases important. 
The stems and leaves of various grasses are utilized for the 
manufacture of paper, the particular species so employed depend- 
ing chiefly upon the locality of the manufacture ; rye straw, for 
example, is largely used in Germany; the stems of maize most 
extensively in the United States, and to a limited extent the leaves 
of Saccharum officinarum and the stems of Zizania aguatica ; 
various species of bamboo, chiefly the young shoots, are used in 
the Indian and Chinese paper-mills, also the stems and leaves of 
