47 



the recently introduced smooth or Hungarian brome which is being 

 grown with such excellent success in the semiarid West and Northwest. 



Tussock-grass [Deschampsia avsintosa) is perhaps the most abundant 

 and widely distributed grass in the native meadows of the Eocky 

 Mountain region. It has a very wide altitudinal range. For example, 

 it is abundant in wet meadows in the Gallatin Valley about Bozeman, 

 Mont., at an altitude of about 

 4,000 feet, and ascends to 

 above the timber line in the 

 mountains on either side of 

 the valley. On account of 

 its tufted habit of growth it 

 does not form an even sod, 

 and hence does not make a 

 good meadow by itself In 

 most instances, however, it 

 is accompanied by other 

 grasses, such as the true 

 meadow-grasses, redtop and 

 blue joint, which fill in the 

 spaces between the tufts, 

 making a fairly good meadow 

 sod. Some observers have 

 reported this grass as of no 

 practical value for either hay 

 or pasturage, but such state- 

 ments are not borne out by 

 the reports of our field agents 

 nor by the opinions advanced 

 by the ranchers. 



While neither the yield nor 

 the quality of the forage is 

 equal to that obtained from 

 timothy or redtop, there can 

 be no doubt that the grass 



fills an important place Fig. is.— Short-awned Brome-grasa (Bromus hreviaris- 



among the native meadow faf-^>:«,tbe floret seen from the side; 6, palea.c, 



^ . joint of tbe racliilla; d, gram; e, lower portion of pis- 



and pasture grasses of this til, showing lodioules;/, young seed or grain. 



region. It flourishes in wet, 



boggy places where many of the better grasses can not grow, and by 

 its dense tufts of tough fibrous roots helps to convert these bogs into 

 usable meadow lands. Moreover, continued mowing and pasturing have 

 the eflect of reducing these tufts materially, so that with a few other 

 grasses to act as fillers a comparatively even sod is produced. Such 

 a condition of things may be seen in many of the mountain valleys, 

 as, for example, in the valley of the Little Laramie River near Sheep 



