22 BULLETIN 1031, V. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULXrEE. 



Areas of loose sandy soil dried out more quickl}^ and were subject to 

 greater injury than areas of the more compact finer textured soils. 

 The difference was increased by the action of wind as well as differ- 

 ence in soil and moisture. Local areas of loose sandy soil were re- 

 duced to wind-blown wastes. 



Because of the small amount of inferior grasses and long-lived 

 f>erennial weeds on the two areas under study a conclusion as to 

 the behavior of such vegetation is not warranted. This class of 

 forage is not of great value except during wet springs, when it 

 furnishes considerable qsltIj feed. 



Vegetation of the character that usually lasts but a single year is 

 not so materially affected by drought, because the plants depend 

 upon the surface soil for their moisture, which might be supplied 

 by showers at the proper season of the year, even during drought. 

 The largest number of such plants occurred during 1917 and 1918, 

 the driest years of the drought. This might easih^ occur, since the 

 high winds increased dissemination and planting of the seeds, the 

 rain that fell was sufficient to moisten the surface soil to promote 

 growth, and competition by the main grasses had diminished. The 

 volume of forage furnished by this kind of vegetation on range 

 used in winter is negligible, however, since the plants dry up and 

 blow away soon after the growing season. 



Aside from the reduction in density of the forage stand due to 

 drought, there was also a reduction in the height and foliage growth 

 which further reduced the volume of forage. In 1917 the average 

 height growth of ungrazed grama-grass was 13 inches, in 1918 it was 

 only 8.6 inches, while in 1919, a year of more moisture, the average 

 height growth reached 16 inches. It was difficult to measure in 

 actual terms of quantity the difference in volume of forage produced 

 due to variation in height and foliage growth on the ungrazed plots, 

 because the previous year's foliage was not removed and the drjmess 

 of the plants made it difficult to determine the amount that was 

 actually dead. Careful estimates, however, placed this reduction in 

 1917 and 1918 in volume of forage produced per unit area of vege- 

 tative stand at not less than 20 per cent of the amount produced 

 under average condition. More nearly average height growth and 

 foliage production was reached in 1919 b}^ the plants that survived 

 the drought. 



From the grama-grass range under protection against grazing the 

 data and estimates indicate a reduction in the stand of the most 

 important forage plants of 8 per cent in 1917, 12.4 per cent in 1918, 

 and 40.5 per cent in 1919, as compared with the stand in 1916. One 

 of the plots observed had been under protection since 1913, the other 

 since 1915, so that the stand in 1916 was probably near the maximum 

 for the two sites which were chosen as representative of this type of 



