GEASSES FOR CANAL BANKS IN WESTERN SOUTH DAKOTA. 27 



Brome-grass will not endure as severe drought as will western 

 wheat-erass, but is more drought resistant than any of the other 

 grasses tested. In certain plats on the ditch banks it maintained 

 a good stand during the extremely dry seasons of 1010 and 1011. 

 Its habit of spreading by means of underground rootstocks enables 

 it to form a good sod and makes it one of the best grasses for soil 

 binding. (See fig. 1.) 



WESTERN WHEAT-GRASS. 



Western wheat-grass {Agropyron smithii) is native to western 

 South Dakota and is the most valuable pasture and hay grass of the 

 region. On the dry plains it forms, with buffalo grass, the chief 

 forage for the range stock, and in the creek valleys, where it is some- 

 times watered by overflow from the streams, it makes a thick growth 

 and is the chief native hay grass. It is extremely drought resistant 

 and yet will endure a great amount of flooding. It is the most re- 

 sistant to alkali of the grasses mentioned in this paper. In the 

 field experiments of Mr. T. H. Kearney 1 it proved to be the 

 most resistant to alkali of any of the grasses tested. On the 

 dry ditch banks it is slow in starting growth, but when once 

 established it makes a tough, permanent sod. The seed can not 

 be obtained commercially, but can usually be harvested in favor- 

 ably situated places along the creek bottoms. In 1000 the writer 

 thrashed 100 pounds of seed from a few bundles which were cut 

 in an hour's time with a common grain binder. The germi- 

 nation of the seed is often rather poor, so that a large quantity, about 

 30 or 40 pounds per acre, should be used. The chief objection to 

 western wheat-grass is its slow early growth which makes it long 

 in establishing itself. Its valuable characters — drought endurance, 

 alkali resistance, ability to endure flooding, and good sod-producing 

 habit — make western wheat-grass one of the best of soil binders. 

 In places where a native sod is cut through in making the ditches, 

 the surviving plants of western wheat-grass at the edge of the cut 

 will extend their growth up the canal bank, so that in a few years 

 a good covering is naturally produced. This, however, will only 

 occur where the grass is already present at the edge of the bank 

 and not in cultivated fields where the native sod has been destroyed. 



SLENDER WHEAT-GRASS. 



Slender wheat-grass (Agropyron tenerum) makes a comparatively 

 rapid growth and is valuable to give quick results in a mixture. This 

 grass, unlike western wheat-grass, is a bunch grass and does not 

 form a continuous sod unless planted very thickly. It is not nearly 

 as drought resistant as either . brome-grass or western wheat-grass. 



1 Loc. cit. 

 [Cir. 115] 



