DESCRIPTION OF IMPORTANT GRASS FORAGE PLANTS 



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late branches produce vegetatively male and female plants as offshoots. 

 It is a very hardy grass and it seems to be indifferent to drought. On the 

 dry plains, it seldom grows over two to four inches tall, but in southern 

 Texas, where conditions of heat and moisture are more favorable, it may 

 become a foot high. It dry cures and furnishes in the (fry state excellent 

 winter grazing. 



The following table gives the composition of buffalo grass. 



Water-free Basis (.Per cent) 



Short Grass Vegetation. A few words as to the growth of these two 

 grasses from an agricultural-ecological standpoint. Representing the 

 most typical form of the short-grass formation in eastern Colorado, the 

 grama-buffalo-grass association presents an appearance of extreme mono- 

 tony, according to H. L. Shantz. The plant cover is uniform and carpet- 

 like in some places covering the whole surface of the ground in other places 

 broken into alternating areas of open ground and dense mat-like cover. 

 The amount of soil surface covered varies from as low as 10 per cent, to as 

 high as 90 per cent., and the growth is the closest where there is a mixture 

 of the two dominant grasses. When grama grass predominates there is 

 an open-mat type of vegetation. A variety of other species, annual and 

 perennial, are mixed with the grama and buffalo grasses and seasonally 

 give some variety to the short-grass formation. 



Short-grass vegetation is an indicator of rather short season favorable 

 for growth. Grama grass requires approximately sixty days to mature and 

 often fails to ripen its seed, largely because of insufficient water supply. 

 Buffalo grass usually flowers and fruits early in the season, but when the 

 early season is dry its fruiting may occur at any time during the summer 

 when the water supply is sufficient. The principal adaptation of these 

 grasses, according to H. L. Shantz, seems in their ability to dry out, as 



