436 GRASSES AND HOW TO GROW THEM. 



growing crops upon it. Over the greater portion of 

 this area, these cannot be grown because of the limited 

 precipitation, which characterizes all this region. It 

 varies from 12 to 15 inches per annum downward to 

 almost nothing. This entire area is covered with short 

 grasses, which make their growth soon after the pre- 

 cipitation for the season comes, and then cure where 

 they grow, in which condition they furnish excellent 

 winter grazing, when present in sufficient quantity. 



Between the most easterly and westerly ranges of the 

 Eocky mountains are vast stretches of mountains, table 

 lands or bench lands as they are more frequently called, 

 and plains. These also are covered, more or less, with 

 grasses, being dense or thin according to the measure 

 of the precipitation and the extent to which sand, sta- 

 tionary or shifting is present; to proximity to seep- 

 age waters from the mountains and to the heat of the 

 summer climate. Northward in this area, the' precipi- 

 tation is usually more than southward, and the summer 

 heat is less intense; consequently, the grazing is usu- 

 ally more abundant. Grass production decreases with 

 the abundance of sand or gravel, and where the sands 

 shift, it is virtually absent. 



But where seepage waters abound and come neai* 

 the surface, grass production is abundant. The 

 sides of the mountains furnish much grazing until 

 trees clothe them, a condition which increasingly pre- 

 vails with increasing altitudes, until the upward limit of 

 tree growth is reached, beyond which are realms of 

 rock and snow. The production of this region is not 

 unlike that of the plains east of the mountains, but 



