24 BULLETIN 545, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The flower stalks begin to show about July 25, and by August 10 

 are usually all produced. Matured seeds have been observed as 

 early as August 10, and are usually pretty well ripened by Septem- 

 ber 1 . Dissemination takes place almost immediately upon maturity. 



Seeds of this species are above the average in germinating power. 

 Seed vitality for the three years beginning with 1907 was 38, 47, 

 and 58 per cent, respectively. On the lower ranges a germination 

 as high as 85 per cent was obtained. 



The forage value of short-awned bromegrass is relatively high. 

 Because of its rank growth and the coarseness of the culms, however, 

 it is more valuable for cattle and horses than for sheep, although if 

 grazed when young the latter class of stock often entirely consume it. 

 At a later period of growth the culms develop an abundance of crude 

 fiber, and sheep then consume only the leaf blades and the panicle 

 with its spikelets of developing grain. Horses are particularly fond 

 of the grain both in the matured state and when green, and stockmen 

 consider it equal to oats in nutritiousness. When this species is 

 grazed off early in the summer it continues to grow luxuriantly, and 

 at the close of the season has produced a second crop of leafy f oliage 

 equal in palatability to the early crop. Under such treatment, how- 

 ever, no seed stalks are produced. 



On the Wallowa National Forest a variety of short-awned brome- 

 grass, B. marginatus seminudus, and three other species, namely, 

 rattlesnake grass (B. brizaeformis) , B. richardsonii, and soft cheat (B. 

 Tiordeac(us) have been collected. Because of the sparseness of all 

 these forms except the last, this will be the only one discussed. 



Soft Cheat. 

 (Bromus hordeaceus.) 



Soft cheat or chess, an annual native to southern Europe, has 

 taken possession of deteriorated grazing lands in Washington, 

 Oregon, and certain localities in California. On the lower ranges of 

 the Wallowa National Forest, where germination occurs in the fall, 

 it produces a first-class early spring feed when little else is available. 



Soft cheat (Plate XIX) has an erect growth. The culms, which 

 are often very hairy at the nodes, attain a height of from 1 to 2 feet 

 and are subtended by sheaths bearing long flexible hairs often of a 

 silvery-white luster. The leaves are long and narrow, somewhat 

 pubescent or smooth, and rather numerous for an annual species; 

 the panicle is narrow, contracted, and erect, the spikelets from 5 to 

 13 flowered. Extending from the lemma or flowering glume is a 

 stout, straight, or when old, slightly twisted awn, about % inch long, 

 somewhat flattened near the base. 



Soft cheat is well adapted to the Transition zone, but grows 

 luxuriantly in the Canadian zone, and is occasionally met with in 



