XIII 
GRASSES FOR SPECIAL CONDITIONS 
CATTERED over the country, in more or less ex- 
tensive areas, are tracts of land that for one 
reason or another are not suitable for ordinary 
crops; yet, for some special reason, it may be 
desirable to utilize them. Such are the salt-marshes 
along the seaboard, inland swamps and overflowed 
lands, sandy lands that are liable to drift if left un- 
covered, lands too dry for ordinary crops, and the alka- 
line soils of the arid and semi-arid West. There are 
grasses more or less perfectly adapted to all of these 
unusual conditions, but, unfortunately, most of them 
are not amenable to cultivation. Most of them have 
such poor seed habits that it is impracticable to save 
their seed, and the best that can be done is to make 
use of them as they are found growing. Just why 
certain grasses should grow so abundantly without as- 
sistance, and yet fail to respond to man’s efforts to 
propagate them, is not entirely clear. In most cases 
they are grasses which are adapted to a very narrow 
range of conditions. A very slight change in their en- 
vironment seems to be sufficient to cause them to fail. 
In order to succeed with them we should have to learn 
their peculiarities better than we know them now. It 
is not surprising that we are ignorant of these little util- 
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