92 FODDER AND PASTURE PLANTS. 



perhaps because the types now grown have rather poor foliage on 

 the stems. 



Pasture: It is of little value for pasture, as the second growth 

 is poor. 



When sown alone, ten to fifteen pounds of good seed should be 

 used to the acre. No advantage in yield is gained by seeding more 

 thickly on dry soils; on the contrary, it is apt to lessen the yield in 

 succeeding years. 



Seed: It is ready to cut for seed when the spikelets are of a 

 greenish-straw colour, which stage is reached, under normal conditions, 

 three to four weeks after flowering. It can be cut with a binder, 

 cured like Timothy and threshed in a grain thresher. 



Quality of seed: The seed is bright straw-coloured, from a 

 third to half an inch long, awnless or with a short, straight awn at 

 the tip. 



WESTERN WHEAT GRASS {Agropyron occidentale Scribn.) 



Other Latin name: Agropyron Smithii Rydb. 



Other English names: Colorado Blue-stem, Blue-joint, Alkali Grass. 



Western Wheat Grass is strongly perennial with a creeping root- 

 stock similar to that of Couch Grass. The plants do not grow in 

 tufts, like Western Rye Grass, but form an open sod with scattered 

 stems and leafy shoots like Couch Grass. The whole plant is bluish 

 green which accounts for the names Blue-stem and Blue-joint. 

 The stems are from one to four feet high and rather stout. The 

 leaves are comparatively long, firm in texture, flat, or in dry localities 

 rolled together. The inflorescence is strongly flattened, broader and 

 denser than that of Western Rye Grass. The spikelets are about 

 twice as long and contain a greater number of flowers generally 

 about eight. In a spikelet of Western Rye the two lowest glumes 

 are about as long as the whole spikelet, whereas in Western Wheat 

 they are about half as long. 



Western Wheat Grass is indigenous to western Canada from 

 Saskatchewan to the Rocky Mountains. In the United States it 

 extends westward from Michigan and Kansas. 



