114 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



to the prairie grasses to recuperate, this is undoubtedly the case. 

 It is found, however, that where fields of the best wild grasses are 

 inclosed, and only mowed when mature, they will remain good 

 meadows for many years. It soon kills these grasses to mow them 

 early in the season, when or before they are in flower. I have fre- 

 quently seen tracts of land inclosed where weeds had already gained 

 partial possession, and by leaving them lie untouched for a number of 

 years, the ground would again become thickly matted over with 

 these rich grasses. With a little care, the new settler in Nebraska 

 can get his supply of hay and pasture of the best quality from the 

 prairies for a great number of years. He can be supplied, at least, 

 until his own industry and advancement will prompt him to raise the 

 cultivated grasses. Many of these wild grasses deserve to be experi- 

 mented with. They have done so much to enrich the West already, 

 that their cultivation, if possible, would be a great agricultural gain. 



DISAPPEARANCE OF BUFFALO GRASS. 



Buffalo grass {Buchlce dacty hides] was once common all over 

 Nebraska. Other species were present, but this grass was more 

 abundant than all the others put together. It has now almost en- 

 tirely disappeared from the eastern half of the State. Here it is 

 now found only in isolated spots, which sometimes are slight de- 

 pressions in the surface, some times elevations, and sometimes on 

 a level with the plain. In examining the last retreats of this grass 

 to ascertain the cause of its pertinacious life in such places, I inva- 

 riably found that they were spots where the excess of alkali had 

 entered into slight chemical union with the other ingredients of 

 the soil, and more or less hardened it. This seems to indicate that 

 such soils w r ould be favorable to the cultivation of this grass ; but 

 whether this is the case, and whether, supposing this was possible, 

 it is worthy of cultivation, remains to be determined by actual ex- 

 periment. The manner and the cause of the disappearance of this 

 grass is exceedingly curious. It cannot be caused by the ingress 

 of domestic cattle. I have known whole counties from which the 

 buffalo grass disappeared long before any domestic cattle or culti- 

 vation had interrupted the work of nature. For example, I vis- 

 ited Wayne County, Nebraska, for the first time in 1865, when as 

 yet there was not a single w r hite man or any domestic cattle within 

 its bounds. And yet the buffalo grass w r as even then rapidly disap- 

 pearing, and in a few years more was almost entirely gone. Many 

 other instances of the same kind could be given. 



