THE GRASS LANDS 141 



As you go west from the land of the tall grass and cross the 

 hundredth meridian you notice a great change in the grass. This 

 is the country of the short buffalo grass and blue grama. In its 

 original state, these vast plains were covered with a thick green 

 sod. The grasses matured early in the season and turned to a 

 rich brown as they cured on the stalk. Thus the herds of buffalo 

 that lived on these ranges had a constant supply of forage. 



The original cover of the short grass regions can be divided 

 into three distinct types. Along the western edge of the short 

 grass belt in Montana and Wyoming, the grass was mixed with 

 sagebrush, wheatgrass and junegrass. Further south along the 

 western edge of the short grass plains the grama was mixed 

 with palatable herbaceous plants. Further south there were 

 more buffalo and galleta grasses, along with woolly Indian' 

 wheat, sixweeks fescue, rough pennyroyal and western stick' 

 seed, and a few perennial grasses such as needle'and'thread and 

 sand dropseed. In the semi'desert and desert regions of the 

 Southwest there were mostly shrubs like creosotebrush, sage' 

 brush and saltbush and other plants which could resist long 

 periods of drought. The natural meadows that lay between 

 the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada and the Cascade ranges 

 in what is now northern California, Oregon, and Washington 

 were covered with the rich Pacific bunchgrass. 



Originally the grass of the plains served two purposes. 

 First, it protected the soil from the high winds that swept across 

 the flat lands and the sudden rush of water which followed the 

 infrequent but torrential rains. Secondly, it provided pasture 

 for the buffalo, the elk, the deer, and the other animals that 

 ranged this country. From the point of view of land use, grass 

 played the most important role. It built up and protected the 

 soil. It fed the animals. 



The first European users of this range country, the Spanish, 

 found the ranges of the dry Southwest not unlike the cattle 

 lands of their native Spain. They settled along the slim green 



