368 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1950 



not mean, however, that growth is hixuriant regardless of the season. 

 During cycles of drought, it is only natural to assume that vegetation 

 would adjust itself to drought conditions. Increment of growth dur- 

 ing dry seasons would naturally be less. Seed production would be 

 gradually decreased as would also basal cover. Even root develop- 

 ment would doubtless be modified greatly. Recovery, however, would 

 occur over a relatively short period of time. The greatest destruc- 

 tion of our rangeland has occurred when the impact of overutilization 

 of rangeland and poor tillage practices of our cultivated soil have been 

 added to the impact of unfavorable climatic conditions. The early 

 pioneers were not confronted with overutilization because as grass be- 

 came scarce in one area the livestock naturally moved to another area 

 on the free range where utilization had been less intense. Under these 

 conditions it was only natural to draw the conclusion that grasslands 

 were not expendable — that they came into existence through a long 

 period of adversity and nothing that man could do would destroy 

 them. 



Eesearch on rangeland in the Great Plains has been limited mostly 

 to the present generation ; in fact, most of it has been done during the 

 past 20 years. Several members of the botany staff of Fort Hays 

 Kansas State College claim western Kansas as their "native habitat." 

 They have watched the prairies gradually deteriorate under the in- 

 fluence of overutilization, or have seen their complete destruction as 

 they were put under cultivation. It therefore became obvious that 

 more information was needed in order to know more fully how we 

 might maintain our prairies under high production at the same time 

 they were being utilized by livestock and, more recently, how to re- 

 grass much of our worn-out cultivated land. In the late twenties 

 and early thirties a program of study was initiated at Fort Hays 

 Kansas State College and has continued unbroken since that time. 

 Fortunately, from 1927 to 1932 inclusive, precipitation at Hays and 

 at other locations in the high plains was considerably above normal. 

 This condition made it possible to lay out research and to obtain initial 

 data at a time when our prairies were at a maximum of development. 

 Areas were set aside in 1932 in order to determine what and how much 

 vegetation occupied different topographic locations (Albertson, 1937) 

 More recently, other studies have been inaugurated throughout west- 

 ern Kansas, particularly in the southwest (Albertson, 1941, 1942). 

 Many of these areas have since been plowed up and planted to wheat — 

 a practice that has been going forward at an alarming rate in western 

 Kansas and eastern Colorado during the past few years. 



Research on the prairies during past years has revealed some strik- 

 ing facts. The first significant reaction of prairie vegetation to 

 drought is decreased growth. As drought continues and becomes 



