Grass

Perhaps early man learned to use grass when he saw birds eating the seed.  He tasted the seed, liked it and learnt to store it so that he could plant it in the next rain.  Rice, wheat, maize and bamboo are all grasses.  They are an important food for most people in the world today.

Early man saw birds, like weaver birds, building their nests out of grass and so he, too, used it for building his home.

There are thousands of different grasses.  They can be found in almost every country and climate.  Their roots are light and thin and able to take up water and food from the soil.  Nature has made grass seeds in such a way that they can be carried far and wide by the wind, by birds and by animals.

Not only man but grazing animals, too, would starve if there was no grass.  Many large animals are grass eaters: the hippo, the elephant that plucks it with its trunk, the white (square-lipped) rhino, the zebra, the buffalo, the Impala.  Some animals, such as the grasshopper, the grass-snake and the grass owl, use grass as shelter.  The lion and many other wild cats hide in the grass before springing on their prey.  Their bodies are the colour of grass; only a slight movement of ear or tail gives them away.

Grassroots bind and hold the soil tightly together and keep it from breaking up and blowing away. Soil is often lost when wind and rain and overgrazing break it up.  Overgrazing is very bad for our land.  When cattle are allowed to feed in the same place for too long the soil becomes useless.  We must learn to look after our soil and our grassland.

For the want of good grass
The soil is lost.
For the want of the soil
The crops are lost.
For the want of the crops
The people are lost –
And all for the want of good grass.

If it were not for our fields of grass a great part of our earth would be a desert.  Apart from being useful, grass is also very beautiful, the long stems bending and rippling in the wind like the waves of the sea.