GRASS CULTURE AND RANGE IMPROVEMENT \^ 



difference was noted in the drought survival of hairy grama, blue 

 grama, buffalo grass, and plains bristlegrass, although more of the 

 blue grama seedlings died than did those of buffalo grass. Others 

 which survived to a limited extent included side-oats grama, weeping 

 lovegrass (an introduction from South Africa), jaragua grass (an 

 introduction from South America), bluestem (western wheatgrass), 

 and vine-mesquite. A lack of uniformity in original stands made it 

 impossible to determine exactly the relative drought resistance, but 

 most of the survivors appear to be worthy of further trial. Many 

 other species persisted for different periods of time before yielding to 

 heat and drought, and several died just before the fall rains began. 

 Several others might have survived had they been established for 

 longer periods before the drought started. Included among the 

 grasses which failed to survive the summer were crested wheatgrass 

 and bromegrass. 



Begional grass surveys conducted in 1935 (58) indicated that blue 

 grama is adapted to a much wider range of climate, soil texture, and 

 altitude than buffalo grass and was an important species on prac- 

 tically all soil textures studied. It proved to be less resistant to 

 clipping and heavy grazing than buffalo grass but was superior to 

 most others in these respects. Observations indicate that blue grama 

 survives a deeper covering of wind-deposited silt than the somewhat 

 shorter growing buffalo grass. 



Rydberg and Shear (£'£, p. U) reported in 1897 : 



It [blue grama] is one of the best pasture grasses of the arid plains and 

 bench lands of the West, and far excels, in general opinion, the true Buffalo- 

 grass (BulMHs dactyloides (Nutt.) Rafin), which has gained much of its credit 

 at the expense of Bouteloua, the two being often confused by farmers and 

 ranchmen. Under favorable circumstances it produces a much larger crop than 

 is usually supposed. 



Hundreds of individual plants of blue grama selected and isolated 

 at Hays, Kans., and Woodward, Okla., exhibit striking differences in 

 growth characters. The outstanding strains are now being selfed in 

 an effort to fix the desired characters preparatory to further improve- 

 ment by hybridization and reselection. 



BUFFALO GRASS 



Buffalo grass repossesses abandoned fields much more rapidly -and 

 more completely than blue grama, and abandoned fields fully covered 

 with buffalo grass have withstood the drought much better than 

 adjacent virgin pastures. Practical methods of harvesting the seed in 

 commercial quantities have not been perfected, and many years may 

 be required to develop seed-producing strains suitable for harvesting 

 easily. In view of these facts, wider efforts should be made to reestab- 

 lish the grass by vegetative methods. By spacing the sods at wide 

 intervals, sufficient to provide a nucleus of this rapid spreading 

 species, the cost, which is mainly for labor, can be greatly minimized, 

 and the process of revegetation materially hastened. Sod in good 

 condition for this purpose is scarce in the region at the present time 

 but usually may be found in considerable abundance in the vicinity of 

 buffalo wallows, on old abandoned fields, and perhaps later on, in 

 contour furroivs. Two farmers near Quinter and Hays, Kans., suc- 



107572°— 39 3 



