470 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



known as buffalo grass and gramma grass, are beyond comparison the most im' 

 portant. These two, with the "blue grass," which ranks next in order, though 

 far below them, constitute from seventy to ninety per cent of the pasturage of 

 the arid region. The " blue grass" just mentioned — which must not be con- 

 founded with the cultivated grass of the same name — is found chiefly in low and 

 comparatively moist spots, where it sometimes grows quite rank, attaining a 

 height of three feet and making a good hay or acceptable winter pasturage. Cat- 

 tle, however, will not eat it while the more nutritious buffalo aad gramma grass 

 are to be had. Of these latter. Dr. Vasey found that the gramma grass (which in 

 the northern territories is sometimes erroneously included under the term buffalo 

 grass) predominates near the margins of the little streams and for some distance 

 away from them, while the buffalo grass is the more abundant along the ridges^. 

 In the smaller mountain valleys gramma, as a rule, predominates. 



Dr. Vasey estimates the number of cattle that can be pastured on a square 

 mile within the arid region at from thirty to fifty head. He thinks that the pro- 

 duce of some of the wild grasses might possibly be increased by cultivation, and 

 thinks it desirable that experiments should be made in that .direction, and in. 

 general with a view to ascertaining the capabilities of the arid lands. 



Alluding to the prevailing western opinion that the amount of rainfall in- 

 creases with the settlement of the country and the breaking of the soil by the 

 plows, he said that within the past three years there had undoubtedly been a 

 considerable and successful advance of cultivation over lands formerly regarded 

 as arid, but whether the rainfalls would permanently prove sufficient for agriculture 

 remained to be seen. He noticed, however, that many ten acre tracts of timber 

 planted within the limits of the arid region under the timber culture act, ap- 

 peared to be doing well, though in some cases he saw tracts where the trees, 

 either from neglect, lack of moisture, or other cause, were dying out. 



The boundary between the arid region and the country where the rainfall is 

 sufficient for agriculture has commonly been placed at the looth meridiai;. Dr. 

 Vasey appeared to think that it might possibly be placed as far west as the 105th 

 meridian, though the line is an irregular one, being further west in northern than 

 in southern latitudes, and considerably further in the valleys near the longer 

 rivers than in the more elevated regions lying between these streams. — National 

 Republican. 



THE STATE OF IOWA ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY YEARS AGO. 



The State of Iowa was delineated upon an old globe one hundred and sixty 

 years ago. This globe is over seven feet in diameter and was made of wood, by 

 a Capuchin monk. Father Legrand, in 1720, and is to-day preserved in the public 

 library of Dijou, the French ancestral home of Father Laurent. On the proper 

 place on its huge surface is marked the then known geography of what is now 

 the State of Iowa and adjacent territory, and as elsewhere appears in the report 



