52 RESEEDING WESTERN GRAZING LANDS 



temperature; at low elevations, as in the arid-plains region, 

 seeding may fail because of the low rainfall and the frequent 

 periods of protracted drought. 



What Grasses to Sow. — In selecting plants for pasture, 

 only those should be used that remain green and palatable so 

 that stock will crop them with relish over a long period. They 

 should make a heavy yield; they should be palatable through- 

 out the season (even after the herbage dries it should be relished 

 and retain its highly nutritive qualities); and they should by 

 all means be well adapted to the soil and climatic conditions 

 peculiar to the locaHty. 



No species has given larger yields, at least for the first two or 

 three seasons, under a diversity of range conditions, than tim- 

 othy. Furthermore, the cost of the seed is lower than that of 

 any of the more promising species. When once well estabhshed, 

 a timothy cover is not readily injured by trampling, but it 

 is much less permanent than that of Hungarian bromegrass, 

 Kentucky bluegrass, Canada bluegrass, white clover, and cer- 

 tain other sod-forming species. The latter-named species may 

 be relied upon to yield heavily for an indefinite period, once they 

 are well estabhshed. On the wetter soils redtop yields the most 

 heavily of the plants named. Redtop usually yields well where- 

 ever timothy thrives. As it reproduces mainly by rootstocks, 

 its establishment, although slow, is remarkably tenacious. 



Among the nongrasses, Alsike and the white clovers yield 

 well. Lands to be seeded to these plants, however, should be 

 carefully selected, as neither species does well on very dry sites, 

 or on cold, saturated, or sour soils. 



Amount to Sow and Cost of Seeding. — The methods used in 

 scattering the seed and the soil treatment here recommended 

 make the cost of the seed itself the heaviest item of expense. 

 The cost per hundred pounds of choice seed of the most prom- 

 ising species and the amount of good seed recommended per 

 acre in order to obtain a satisfactory stand on soils of average 

 fertility, follow: 



