6 
THE NATIVE GRASSES. 
As a consequence of the extensive breaking up of the virgin soil in 
the agricultural regions, many of the native grasses have been restricted 
to limited areas, which are usually too broken or too wet for cultivation. 
The principal native hay grasses are Big Blue-stem, Bushy Blue-stem, 
Switch-grass, Western Wheat-grass, Western Quack-grass, Slender 
Wheat-grass, Fowl Meadow-grass, Cord-grass, Wild-rye, the Blue-joints, 
and the various species of Stipa, while these grasses, with the Gramas, 
Buffalo-grass and Prairie June-grass, furnish most of the grazing. 
With the exeeption of the Black Hills region of South Dakota, the 
immense tract of land west of the one hundred and first meridian to 
the Rocky Mountains is devoted almost exclusively to stock raising. 
In each of the Dakotas it includes two regions of very different charac- 
ter; one consisting of a broad rolling prairie known as the “range” 
and the other the famous Bad Lands. The latter region consists of a 
wide area of land broken up by excessive erosion into valleys and 
basins of various sizes alternating with hills or buttes, the sides of 
whieh are usually so steep and so unstable that few plants can grow 
upon them. The flat tops of the buttes and the bottoms of the valleys 
and basins are usually covered with a characteristic growth of vegeta- 
tion of which the grasses form by far the greater part. 
The principal grasses of the stock-raising regions are the Gramas, 
Buffalo-grass, Salt-grass, the Blue-joints, the Sand-grasses, Western 
Wheat-grass, Western Quack-grass, Needle-grass, and Feather Bunch- 
grass. Western Wheat-grass and Western Quack-grass furnish most 
of the hay, except in the moister bottoms, where the Blue-joints, Big 
Sand-grass, and the Cord-grasses are more or less abundant. 
Overpasturing in times of drought is killing out many of the most 
valuable grasses here as well as elsewhere, and unless this practice is 
abandoned permanent injury will result to this, one of the most impor- 
tant of the natural resources of the Northwest. 
The great value of this natural forage is evident when we look at the 
freight records of the various railroads and see the thousands of car- . 
loads of stock annually shipped from this region which are produced 
with no other feed than tbat growing naturally on the prairies. From 
Dickinson alone there were shipped 2,300 carloads off at cattle witbin 
ninety days during the summer and early autumn of 1895. 
It is very important that every possible effort should be made to pre- 
serve the native grasses. They are naturally adapted to the conditions 
which prevail in the region, and it is quite improbable that introduced 
forms can be had to take their places satisfactorily, at least for years 
to come. “That some of the native forms flourish under conditions that 
would kill the common cultivated ones is seen by the situation in Stark 
County, N. Dak. At Dickinson, the Weather Bureau reports for 1895 
show a rainfall of 11.75 inches. Of this amount 5.75 inches fell in June 
x : and July. The small precipitation of 0.64 inch in the three months 
dlc iacta ID de iiu. Ano Bocca m atus ass 
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