40 



of new slioots. Under favorable conditions, however, these meadows 

 may yield good crops for a number of years with nothing more than 

 proper watering. Mr. Griftiths reports seeing a meadow of about 40 

 acres the past season, near Snoma, S. Dak., yielding a crop of about 2 

 tons of hay per acre, which had afforded a good croi) for five consecu- 

 tive seasons. 



In the wet or boggy places in lowland meadows the wheat-grasses 

 are replaced principally by the meadow-grasses and, if the soil is sandy, 



the sand-grasses or blue joints 

 are often present in considera- 

 ble quantity. Of these grasses 

 reed meadow- or manna-grass 

 [Panieularia americana) (see fig. 

 9) and nerved manna- grass (P. 

 nervata) are common in very 

 wet boggy places unless the soil 

 is too strongly impregnated 

 with alkali, when they are often 

 replaced by alkali meadow-grass 

 [PuccinelUa airoides). This last 

 grass is usually quite rigid and 

 wiry and grows in close bunches, 

 but furnishes considerable for- 

 age in some localities. Often 

 it is about the only grass to be 

 seen among the sedges and 

 rushes of the wet, alkali mead- 

 ows, and in such places it is 

 more succulent and i)ahitable 

 than when growing in drier sit- 

 uations. It is very abundant 

 in the overirrigated meadows 

 along the Little Laramie Kiver 

 in Wyoming, and is quite 

 widely distributed over the 

 Western plains and through- 

 out the valleys in altitudes be- 

 low 8,000 feet. 

 The true meadow-grasses {Poa si)p.) are of much more value gener- 

 ally than those just mentioned. These are most abundant in the moist 

 meadows near the foot of the mountains. Among the valuable kinds 

 are the indigenous forms of Kentucky blue grass (Poa pratcn.sis), the 

 "bunch-grasses" {Poa buvUeyawt, P. laerujata, and 7'. Incida), Wyom- 

 ing blue grass (P. wheeleri), bench-laud spear-grass (/'. (irida), wood- 

 land meadow-grass (P. nemoralis), 'Nevadd blue grass (/*. nevadensis). 

 and foMl meadow-grass or false redtop [P.Jlava). Many of these are 

 of as much importance, under present conditions, for pasturage as for 



Fig. 9. — Keed meadow-grass (Vanicidaria atnericaiia) . 



