THE RESEEDING OF DEPLETED GRAZING LANDS. 23 



RELATION OF SOIL ACIDITY TO RESEEDING. 



Throughout the mountains are found areas, usually limited in ex- 

 tent, either so situated that the soil is saturated with water the year 

 round or of such poor drainage that the water accumulated in the 

 spring does not dry out of the soil until late in the growing season. 

 Owing to poor drainage, the rank plant growth usually produced, 

 and the continuous accumulation of organic matter, the soil in such 

 habitats is often acid or sour in varying degrees. 



The soil in the densely vegetated grass, sedge, and rush bogs is 

 almost invariably strongly acid. In some such localities more than 

 30,000 pounds of lime would be required to neutralize an acre a foot 

 in depth. 1 Areas characterized by huckleberries and heaths are also 

 invariably strongly acid. The soils of the willow and alder lands, 

 which are often fairly well drained, are likely to be less sour. 



From a number of isolated plantings of the cultivated forage 

 species experimented with, it became evident that in the sour soils 

 clovers (alsike and white clover tested), Kentucky blue grass, and 

 even timothy grew much less luxuriantly than redtop. Where the 

 lime requirement was no more than 4,000 pounds per acre, alsike 

 clover, in spite of the abundant water supply, died early in the first 

 season, and Kentucky blue grass struggled along, making very slow 

 growth. In the more acid soils timothy also showed signs of dis- 

 tress and did not develop nearly to the extent that it did in the 

 better-drained soils less than a hundred yards away. The feature of 

 greatest interest was the behavior of the roots. Except for redtop, 

 each of the species tried made a very meager root development in the 

 sour soils, and instead of penetrating to a normal depth and spread- 

 ing naturally, the rootlets curved and twisted in a most unusual 

 fashion, as though in search of a different type of soil. 



A study of the growth of cultivated forage plants in sour soils 

 ^hows rather conclusively that alsike and white clovers and Kentucky 

 blue grass are not adapted to such habitats; that timothy does not 

 make its best growth in sour soils; that none of the other species 

 included in this general study, similar in habits to timothy and Ken- 

 tucky blue grass, succeed ; but that redtop makes a prolific aerial and 

 root growth. Such lands are frequently densely vegetated with 

 plants inferior for forage purposes, and owing to the matted surface 

 •and the entanglement of long root stocks running under the surface 

 of the ground, it is often difficult to get redtop started. When a 

 stand is once secured, redtop is able to compete successfully with the 

 native plants. 



In deciding on the plants that may give the best results in reseecl- 

 ing moist meadows, and more especially marsh lands and bogs, it is 



1 In agricultural practice a soil having a lime requirement of 5,000 pounds for 

 neutrality is considered very acid. 



