THE WHEAT GRASSES 333 



and Rocky Mountain states. It is useful there also as a hay 

 grass, particularly for the first two years after seeding, for it 

 produces an abundance of hay until it becomes sodbound. It 

 then makes a good growth of root leaves, so that it is valuable 

 for pasture, but throws up few flowering stems. Farther 

 east, it is perhaps better as a pasture than as a hay grass. 

 It is particularly recommended in the Central states for 

 planting with alfalfa for pasture. It is one of the most 

 palatable of grasses, cattle eating it ,in preference to blue 

 grass. It is also of value in improving worn-out lands, 

 since it produces a large quantity of stems and roots and adds 

 materially to the vegetable matter in the soil. The principal 

 difficulty in sowing brome grass is that it is not often possible 

 to obtain seed which is free from quack grass. 



422. Related Plants. Cheat or chess, Bromus secali- 

 nus, is an annual grass which is a common weed in grain 

 fields, particularly in winter wheat and other winter grains. 

 It makes such a vigorous growth in fields of winter grain 

 where the stand is thin as to give rise to the somewhat 

 common belief that " wheat turns to cheat." The grass is 

 of little value for hay. Rescue grass, or Schrader's brome 

 grass, Bromus unioloides, is of some value in the South as a 

 winter pasture grass (Sec. 413). There are numerous other 

 species of Bromus in various sections of the United States, 

 but none of them are of apparent value. 



MISCELLANEOUS GRASSES 



423. The Wheat Grasses. The wheat grasses are of 

 considerable value as pasture grasses throughout the northern 

 Great Plains and the Pacific Northwest. Slender wheat 

 grass, Agropyron tenerum, is grown to some extent as a hay 

 grass in Washington and Oregon. It is particularly adapted 

 to dry-land farming. Another native grass of this region, 



