XIII 



GRASSES FOR SPECIAL CONDITIONS 



s 



MATTERED over the country, in more or less ex- 

 tensive areas, are tracts of land that for one 

 reason or another are not suitable for ordinary 

 crops; yet, for some special reason, it may be 

 desirable to utilize them. Such are the salt-marshes 

 along the seaboard, inland swamps and overflowed 

 lands, sandy lands that are liable to drift if left un- 

 covered, lands too dry for ordinary crops, and the alka- 

 line soils of the arid and semi-arid West. There are 

 grasses more or less perfectly adapted to all of these 

 unusual conditions, but, unfortunately, most of them 

 are not amenable to cultivation. Most of them have 

 such poor seed habits that it is impracticable to save 

 their seed, and the best that can be done is to make 

 use of them as they are found growing. Just why 

 certain grasses should grow so abundantly without as- 

 sistance, and yet fail to respond to man's efforts to 

 propagate them, is not entirely clear. In most cases 

 they are grasses which are adapted to a very narrow 

 range of conditions. A very slight change in their en 

 vironment seems to be sufficient to cause them to fail. 

 In order to succeed with them we should have to learn 

 their peculiarities better than we know them now. It 

 is not surprising that we are ignorant of these little util- 

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