ha paeas ee 
1884.] The Mezqutt. 455 
useful practical knowledge. Thus, wherever it reaches the pro- 
portions of a tree, we may be reasonably sure that water is within 
forty or fifty feet, and, wherever it grows as a thrifty shrub, within 
fifty or sixty, whatever may be the character of the surface stra- 
tum. The most desolate parts of the Staked plains are the San d- 
hills—bare heaps of shifting sand. Between these are sometimes 
found large, vigorous mezquit shrubs, the only arborescent vege- 
tation there. The inference would be that water, although too 
deep for the ordinary shrubs of the country, is accessible to the 
mezquit, and should be reached at a depth of about sixty feet, a 
conclusion practically verified by the digging of wells along the 
Texas-Pacific railroad. 
When the roots have to dip down to a greater depth than sixty 
feet, the stems remain dwarf and scrubby. 
Climate and Soil—The mezquit is not very sensitive to cold, 
and frosts, if not below zero, do it no apparent harm. It thrives 
best, however, in a hot and dry climate; one with mild winter 
and high summer temperature, small rainfall and clear atmosphere. 
Such climate is that of the Southwestern States and Territories. 
ithin these there is hardly any soil, if not habitually damp, in 
which mezquit cannot grow; no hill is too rocky or broken, no 
too sandy or saline, no dune too shifting, no prairie too often 
burned, to entirely exclude it. It attains its full development on 
, loamy bottom-lands, where the soil is rich and porous, the 
water not too deep, and the prevalent winds shut off. On the 
haud it dwindles to its minimum size, a mere cluster of twigs, 
i hei grassy slopes and rolling prairies, often visited by fires 
Ways swept by winds. 
When once in possession of the soil, it becomes a sort of arbo- 
; “escent weed, of wonderful vitality, and most difficult of eradica- 
; ce I know of a military post where the bushy growth of 
Years but T the parade. was cut close to the ground twice a 
P ese successive mutilations only rendered, it more 
; Year. Aa that the labor of cutting and pruning increased every 
dom, ith rae emember a good-sized shrub which had tumbled 
tom of a rays overhanging edge to which it clung, to the bot- 
buried ika ne; there it lay prostrate, mangled, head under, partly 
Been pota os in the air. In its fall the main or top root had 
-ftom the RA two vine-like rootlets, ten feet long, issuing 
oo EO the ravine, still remained connected with it, and, 
