328 GRASSES AND HOW TO GROW THEM. 



This plant may be expected to render the best of 

 service in the wa'-mer and drier portions of the semi- 

 arid belt, including the states of California, ISTevada, 

 Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. 

 It may be said with safety that it has no mission for 

 Canada nor is it likely to be grown in any part of 

 the United States where range grasses will grow rea- 

 sonably well. 



Soils. — Australian Saltbush will grow best on good 

 soils, but it will also grow on soils that are shallow and 

 underlaid with hardpan, when it has once been estab- 

 lished. It is likely to take its place side by side with 

 the sage bushes that grow on the sandy stretches of 

 the semi-arid west, and to reclaim to productiveness 

 wide stretches which the alkali present in the soil has 

 heretofore kept destitute of vegetation. It must not 

 be understood, however, that this plant will grow in 

 all alkali soils. 



Place in the Rotation. — Australian Saltbush is of 

 course not a rotation plant. When once established 

 the aim is to keep it growing. It is probable, how- 

 ever, that where it has been grown for some time on 

 iilkali soils, it will so improve them that they will thence- 

 forth sustain one or more of the grasses proper. 



Preparing the Soil.- — The best methods of growing 

 Australian Saltbush under American conditions have 

 not been fully worked out. Since, however, moisture 

 is necessary to induce germination, and since precipi- 

 tation is light, where this plant grows the j^lan which 

 works the ground on the surface during the summer, 

 something after the manner of caring for a bare fallow 



