GRASSES OF MINOR IMPORTANCE 1 87 



that are heavily pastured carpet-grass will run out 

 Bermuda grass. It produces very little seed, which is 

 difficult to gather. An occasional method of seeding 

 land to carpet-grass is to mow it at a time when ripe 

 seed is most abundant, and scatter the dry hay on the 

 land to be seeded. This grass does not thrive very 

 far from the Gulf Coast. It seems to prefer uplands, 

 and thrives on either sandy or clay soils. It is a 

 splendid pasture-grass, but does not compare with 

 Bermuda grass in the amount of forage produced. The 

 distribution of carpet-grass is shown in Fig. 40. 



Slender Wheat-grass {Agropyron tenerum). 

 — Of the many valuable wild grasses of our Western 

 plains and mountain regions, slender wheat-grass is 

 one of the few that are promising on cultivated land. 

 It does well on land entirely too dry for timothy, and 

 stands the most rigorous winters. Whether it possesses 

 any advantages over brome- grass for cold, dry climates 

 is not fully determined. It does not become sod-bound 

 like the latter, and may therefore prove to be better 

 for meadows. As the seed is now available on the 

 markets it is probable that the possibilities of slender 

 wheat-grass will be determined in the near future. It 

 is worth trial. 



Agropyron divergens, the great ' ' bunch-grass ' ' of 

 eastern Washington, eastern Oregon, and northern 

 Idaho, and a near relative of slender wheat-grass, is 

 also a promising grass for the driest cultivated lands 

 in the region where it is native. It yields a fair crop 

 of very good hay on drier lands than any of the culti- 

 vated grasses. Its seed is sometimes offered by Western 

 seedsmen, but it is somewhat unreliable. 



