20 CmCULAE 178, U. S. DEPAETMEITT OF AGEICULTUEE 



good results where tested. In the Cascades of Washington (S), in 

 1903-1904, tall fescue made a good stand and excellent growth. It 

 does best where moisture is plentiful, it has few equals in wet situa- 

 tions, and its altitudinal limit is rather high. It is typically a large 

 species, is remarkably long-lived, and produces an abundant crop of 

 fairly palatable foliage which starts growth as soon as snow is gone 

 and remains tender and palatable late in the year. The plant is 

 notably frost resistant. It does not, however, make a complete 

 ground cover, and for this reason is to be recommended for sowing 

 in mixture rather than alone. Though slower than timothy in 

 getting established, it is more persistent than that species. 



Information regarding meadow fescue for cultivated pastures and 

 meadows is given elsewhere (^^y 35) . 



SHEEIP FESCUE 



Sheep fescue (Festuca oviim), the cultivated form of which is 

 l^robably of the same species as common forms of fescue in the 

 Eocky Mountains and elsewhere in the West, is reported as having 

 given satisfactory results in Canada, but results with it in the 

 western part of the United States have not been so promising. Some 

 trials in the Northwest in 1903 (J), in which a fair stand was 

 obtained from, seeding, indicate that it does not hold up well. In 

 cultivated pastures, where the soil is poor, sandy, or gravelly, sheep 

 fescue does better than most grasses (^i). 



CRESTED WHEATGRASS 



Crested wheatgrass {Agropyi^on- cristatwni) shows promise of hav- 

 ing utility on the foothill and lower montane ranges of the West 

 but so far seems to have been used chiefly in dry farming. This 

 Siberian species is regarded by Woodward as the best forage plant 

 thus far tried out at the Judith Basin substation, Mont. (36). Oak- 

 ley and Westover {21) regard it as one of the most promising hay 

 grasses for the northern Great Plains. It furnishes pasturage about 

 two weeks earlier than the other grasses at Mandan, N. Dak., pro- 

 duces well, and is reported to be of good palatability (31). In 

 recent range reseeding trials thin stands only were obtained at 7,400 

 feet elevation in the oak zone in central Utah and at 7,600 feet eleva- 

 tion in southwestern Colorado, and not more than a fair stand was 

 obtained in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in northern Colo- 

 rado. This species did not do so well as common bromegrass in 

 these localities. 



SMILO GRASS 



Smilo grass (Oryzopsis miliacm) , often called millet mountain-rice, 

 is a perennial European bunch grass, 2 to 3i/2 feet high, introduced 

 in a few places in California. It is a good forage species. In a 

 successful experiment on the Sierra National Forest, Calif., on a 

 burned-over area, the seed was broadcast in the ashes and worked in 

 with a brush after the oak slash had been burned and hogs had 

 worked up the ground. By the following April a good stand was 

 obtained, and a fair stand survived after 10 years, despite very heavy 

 grazing and two fires. 



