Arizona Agricultural Experiment Station. 335 



the broad washes described above. Considerable seed of foreign 

 plants was put in here ; but about half of the ground planted was 

 put into native seed collected in the vicinity of Tucson and 

 Tempe. 



The main cultivated areas are two in number and extend in 

 long strips four hundred feet wide directly east and west, and 

 consequently diagonally across the shallow washes. These have 

 been subdivided into rectangular plots of variable size, and sown 

 mainly with seed of native grasses, but also with the more prom- 

 ising drouth-resisting varieties from other regions. 



The cultural operations are vastly more simple than those 

 usually employed. This is necessarily so, because improve m ent 

 of the range at the least possible expense is the desideratum here, 

 and not the growing of the greatest amount possible per acre. 

 The production of forage is so small here at best that one is 

 obliged to measure his pasture by square miles, rather than acres, 

 and the operations in range improvement must be on a corres- 

 pondingly large scale. It has been deemed wise, therefore, to 

 operate simply, but on comparatively large areas. The only im- 

 plements used are disc and fine tooth harrows Every 

 possible combination of these has been employed. In some cases, 

 the seed was sown directly on the mesa with no previous prepara- 

 tion of the soil ; in others, discing or harrowing preceded planting. 

 In all cases the seed was covered by discing or harrowing, or by 

 both combined. As far as possible, all cultural operations ex- 

 tended lengthwise of the long strips, and therefore, diagonally 

 across the washes. The gangs of the disc harrow were set so as 

 to ridge up the ground as much as possible. This method spreads 

 the run-off of water over more land, and the ridged condition 

 holds it to a greater extent than any other method would do. 



Similar cultural operations have been conducted on unseed- 

 ed areas, to ascertain the effect on the native vegetation which 

 springs up immediately after a season of rain. 



The fifty-two acres under cultivation are divided into sixty 

 plots on which have been sown about forty species of forage 

 plants. 



A small grass garden has been started on the University 

 grounds, in which nearly all of the varieties sown on the reser- 



