Mar. 1910.] Conditions in Central and Western Kansas. 303 



PLATE 4. Following the bunch grass the trees proclaim their title to the soil. 



encroaches, then takes possession, and is succeeded by blue 

 stem, the roots ever growing deeper and the soil mulch heavier. 

 Very little rainfall now escapes. The buffalo grass lying close 

 to the ground, packed by hoofs and baked by sun, held little 

 water ; but now the drought cannot wilt the blue stem with its 

 roots five feet deep, making a way for the soil water. Then the 

 shade from the trees, which have all the time been gaining in 

 size, favors the horseweed, the buckbush and sumac appear, and 

 these make a nurse crop for the tree seed; and up the slope, 

 following the bunch-grass scouts and the skirmish line of su- 

 mac, the forest trees proclaim their title to the soil. The sermon 

 they preach over and over is that even the dryest, hardest 

 soils may grow trees if only the soil be prepared for their needs. 

 The difference in the adaptability of soils for trees was not 

 easily appreciated by the early settlers, and the fact that on the 

 uplands many failures resulted from even well planned efforts, 

 has been discouraging. Later investigations concerning soil 

 conditions have added to the knowledge of these soils facts 

 which make it surprising that so many successes resulted from 

 plantings made in soils so poorly adapted to their growth, and 

 also the encouraging fact that most of the Kansas prairie soils 

 improve rapidly with proper cultivation. 



Professor TenEyck, of the Kansas State Agricultural Col- 

 lege, in securing soil samples from high prairie where the buf- 

 falo grass was the only growth found it impossible to drive the 

 soil tube or even a soil augur deeper than two feet into the soil. 



