ECONOMIC CONDITIONS CHANGED. 9 



Climate/ soil, and topography - are the factors deterniiniiif; the 

 native vegetation. As these factors are all fixed and unchangeahle to 

 any appreciable extent, the native vegetation is also fixed and un- 

 changeable so far as one lifetime is concerned, exce])t for the limited 

 effects of overgrazmg and the effect of increased or diminished burn- 

 ing by fiLre. 



Yet along ^^'ith the idea of change of climate goes the belief that 

 the plant growtJi of the native prairies of Nebraska and Kansas has 

 changed decidedly as successful agriculture has ])ushed its way 

 westward. This notion prevails especially mth reference to the long 

 grasses, many believing that even eastern Nebraska and eastern 

 Kansas were covered with buffalo and grama grasses 40 years ago, 

 and that settlement has caused the bluestem to (hive the short 

 grasses westward 200 miles. This opinion has, however, no founda- 

 tion in fact. When the Plains were first settled there were no elements 

 in the flora that had not assumed their pro])er places. Neither the 

 long grasses nor the short grasses were newcomers. Both had fought 

 the battle for supremacy and each held its chosen ground — the ground 

 which it still holds, except as overgrazing or burning has disturbed 

 the equilibrium. If the stock is removed, the floral covering even on 

 the overgrazed hind again assumes its original character, showing 

 conclusively that the character of the plant growth is a fixed resultant 

 of natural causes and is not determined or changed by any obscure 

 and intangible force following in the wake of civilization. 



The appearance of the ])rairies changes noticeably in wet seasons. 

 The wheat-grass and other tall grasses and weeds are much more 

 in evitlence, the buffalo and grama grasses grow much taller, and 

 annual plants are more conspicuous; but the real and ])ermanent 

 characters of the flora are unchanged by even half a dozen wet years. 

 Tlie relative sizes of plants, but not the kinds of perennials, change 

 with the season. 



The same native flora which existed on the Plains when they were 

 first settled occupies them to-day; the same climatic con(Htions which 

 caused the i-uin of the early settlers must l)e met b}' the settlors of 

 to-day; the same soil conditions which the homesteader then found 

 confront the "dry farmer" of the present; the same grass mixture 

 wliich pastured the first homeseeker's stock and in some cases fur- 

 nished hay for the winter is still there. As man has not changed the 

 climate, neither has hv changed the plant gi'owth on the prairies. 



ECONOMIC CONDITIONS IN THE GREAT PLAINS CHANGED. 



Wliat has just been stated is not that the farmer on the semiarid 

 Plains to-day has the same combination of conditions to meet that 

 he had 25 years ago when the region was first invaded. It has 



1 See Bulletin 55, Bureau of SoUs, pp. 31 and 35. ^ Idem, p. 30. 



215 



