The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-05-13
AN ESSAY ON GRASS.
Importance of This Earth Covering
We'll Set Forth.

John J. Ingalls,, in Kansas Agricultural Re-
port.
Next in Importance to the divine profu-
sion of water, light and air, those three
great physical facts which render exist
ence possible. may be reckoned the uni
versal beneficence of grass. Exaggerated
by tropical heats and vapOrS to the gigan-
tic cane congested with its saccharine Sc
erection. or dwarfed by polar rigors to the
fbrous hair of northern solitudes, embrace
ing between these extremes the maize with
its resolute pennons, the rice plant of
southern swampS, the wheat, rye, barley,
oats and other cereals, no less than the
humber verdure of hillsides, pasture and
prairie in the temperate zone, grass is the
most widely distributed of all vegetable
beings, and is at once the type of our life
and the emblem of our mortality. Lying
in the sunshine among the buttercups and
the dandelions of May, scarcely higher in
intelligence than the minute tenants of that
mimic wilderness, our earliest recollections
are of grass; and when the fitful fever is
ended. and the foolish wrangle of the mar
ket and the forum is closed, grass heals
over the scar which our descent into the
bosom of the earth has made, and the car
pet of the infant becomes the blanket of
the dead.
AS he reflected upon the brevity of human
life, grass has been the favorite symbol of
the moralist, the chosen theme of the
philosopher. "All flesh is grass" said the
prophet: MY days are as the grass"
sighed the troubled patriarch and the pen
sive Nebuchadnezar, in his penitential
mood, exceeded even these, and, as the
sacred historian informs us. did eat grass
like an OK.
Grass is the forgiveness of nature-her
constant benediction. Fields trampled with
battle, saturated with blood, torn with the
ruts of cannon, grow green again with
grass and carnage is forgotten. Streets
abandoned by traffic become grass-grown
like rural lanes and are obliterated. For
ests decay. barvests perish. flowers vanish
but grass is immortal. Beleaguered by the
sullen hosts of winter, Ii withdraws into
the impregnable fortress of its subterran-
can vitality and energies upon the first
solicitation of spring. Sown by the winds.
by wandering birds. propagated by the
subtle horticulture of the elements which
the rude outline of the world. Its tenaci-
prevent it's soluble components from wash
ing into the wasting sea. 1t invades the
solitude of deserts, climbs the inaccessible
slopes and forbidding pinnacles of noun
tains. modifies climates. and determines
the history. character and destiny of ma
lions. Unobtrusive and patient. 1T has i'm
mortal vigor and aggression. Banshed
from the thoroughfare and the field. it
bides its time to return. and when vigilance
is relaxed or the dynasty has persisted Ii
silently resumes the throne from which IT
has been expelled, but which IL never alb
dicates. IL bears no blazonry of bloom to
charm the senses with fragrance or splen-
dor. but it's homely hue is more enchant-
ing than the lily or the rose. IT yields no
fruit in earth or air, and yet should it's har-
vest fail for a single year famine would de-
populate the world.