94 THE FORAGE AND FIBER CROPS IN AMERICA 



96. Description. Smooth brome grass is strongly stolon- 

 iferous and deep-rooted. At the North Dakota Station roots 

 of one-year-old plants had reached four feet, two-year-old, five 

 and one-half feet, forming a dense sod six to eight inches thick. 

 The culms are erect, growing under cultivation four feet or more 

 in height. They are abundantly provided with prominent leaves. 

 The leaf sheath is entire; the leaf blade varies from one-fourth 

 to one-half inch wide, 8 to 12 inches in length, and is rolled in 

 the bud. The ligule is short and rather inconspicuous. The 

 flowers are borne in a widely spreading panicle four to eight 

 inches long. The spikelets are large, three-fourths to one inch 

 long, with six to ten, usually seven to nine flowers to a spikelet. 

 The seeds (flowering glumes) are three-eighths to one-half 

 inch long, flat and without awns. The rachilla is one-fifth to 

 one-fourth the length of the flowering glume and is covered 

 with bristles which serve to distinguish the seed from perennial 

 rye grass seed, or meadow fescue seed. The caryopsis or 

 naked seed is brown, slightly folded, and about two-thirds the 

 length of the flowering glume. 



97. Adaptation. Smooth brome grass being a comparatively 

 recent introduction, its economic range has not yet been fully 

 established for the United States. Having grown for centuries 

 upon the Steppes of Russia, it is adapted to a cold climate and 

 a dry soil. Although it has not been uniformly successful over 

 the whole area, in general it appears worthy of trial over that 

 vast area between the Missouri River and the Cascade Mountains 

 of the Pacific coast which has not heretofore possessed a sat- 

 isfactory pasture grass. Its abundant and deep root system 

 not only enables it to withstand long periods of drought, but 

 also by binding the particles of soil together prevents the trans- 

 portation of the soil by wind. It appears particularly adapted 

 to the sub-humid High Plains region between 98 and 104 

 degrees West Longitude, north of Oklahoma. It is enthusi- 

 astically recommended by the Kansas, Nebraska, and North 



