36 



spineless pear cactus also occurs- in South Africa, and is there used as 

 forage. 



Proceeding northward from Laredo the character of the land remains 

 much the same for 50 miles, improving very gradually until the valley 

 of the Nueces is reached. From the Nueces to the Guadalupe the soils 

 are mainly rich black or chocolate loams, "well grassed with an abun- 

 dance of species, the curly mesquite predominating on the uplands, and 



Bermuda along tbe streams. 

 The carrying capacity is 

 high, ranging from 55 to 70 

 head per square mile, and, 

 while held to have decreased 

 from one-fourth to two- fifths 

 on account of overstocking 

 during droughts, the quality 

 is now considered to be stead • 

 ily improviug. The chief 

 means of betterment of the 

 forage conditions here is the 

 cultivation of hay and coarse 

 forage such as sorgbum, Col- 

 orado grass, cowpeas, alfalfa, 

 and milo maize. Stack silage 

 can also be used to advan- 

 tage with cotton-seed hulls 

 and meal for winter feeding. 



THE MIDDLE PLAINS. 



The region 100 miles west 

 and 150 miles northwest 

 from Bexar County is all 

 broken country, with Hinty 

 limestone outcrops on lower 

 slopes of the water sheds. 

 The soils are i)atchy — black 

 prairie loams on the back- 

 bone of the ridges, with 

 gray, red, brown, chocolate, 

 and black soils in the valleys and on the lower slopes. There are in parts 

 of this region numerous and extensive gravel deposits of apparently 

 lacustrine origin. Much of the section is quite mountainous. The rain- 

 fall is rather abundant, coming mostly during the spring and early sum- 

 mer months, but is not entirely limited to any one season, so that the 

 conditions are excellent from the stockman's standpoint. This is a tran- 

 sition area as regards the grass flora. The striking grasses of the river 

 valleys are those which thrive in the humid eastern portion of the State, 

 including Llmnodca, rescue grass (fig. 5), satin grasvses [Muhlcnheryia)^ 



Fig. 5.— Rescue grass (Bromue unioloidet) . 



