Circular No. 33. — (Agros. 84.) 



United States Department of Agriculture, 



DIVISION OF AGROSTOLOGY. 



[Grass and Forage Plant Investigations.] 





RANGE GRASS AND FORAGE PLANT EXPERIMENTS AT HIGHMORE, 

 S. DAK.— REPORT OF PROGRESS.* 



The cooperative range grass and forage plant experiments at High- 

 more, S. Dak., begun in the spring of 1899 and conducted in cooper- 

 ation with the South Dakota Experiment Station, were continued 

 during the season of 1900, and the present circular is based upon the 

 report of Mr. Louis W. Carter, who has had immediate charge of the 

 work. In 1899 there were cultivated T-t plats, including -12 varieties of 

 grasses and forage plants, all but 12 of which were perennials. In 

 1900 57 varieties were grown, of which 27 were not grown in 1899. 

 These were as follows : Meadow fescue, red fescue, Broiiiua en^cfus^ 

 B. hdmil^ B. teetorum, orchard grass, Washington blue-grass, Japan- 

 ese barnyard millet, white Russian broom-corn millet, Samarkand 

 alfalfa, French alfalfa, Australian saltbush, bitter vetch {Lathyrus 

 sativus)^ white milo maize, Egyptian corn, March rape, Canadian 13'me 

 grass, blue Canadian lyme, goose wheat, oats, barley, speltz, emmer, 

 Russian buckwheat, Viciafaha^ white soy beans, sweet clover. 



The season of 1900 was peculiar in that, although the rainfall 

 was larger than usual, the season as a whole was very unfavoraljle. 

 The preceding winter was dr}^ and without snow until the latter 

 part of ]\[arch, when there was a fall of 8 inches. This, together 

 with a fall of 3.2 inches of rain at the end of April, furnished 

 favorable conditions for the germination of seeds, but was followed 

 T)y a protracted drought of about seven weeks. Inuring that period 

 hot winds blew a part of the time, the prairie turned j-ellow, ponds 

 dried up, and wells began to fail. The drought was general over 

 South Dakota and all grasses and grains sufiered, but cultivated crops, 

 like corn and potatoes, when well tended, resisted the drought and 



*The report for 1899 is embodied in Circular No. 21 of this Division, entitled 

 Cooperative Range Grass and Forage Plant Experiments at Ilighmore, S. Dak. 



