48 RANGE IMPROVEMENT IN CENTRAL TEXAS. 
it itappears to be very much of a nuisance. The ripe seeds are sharp 
and sometimes pierce the tongues of cattle, and become fastened in 
the wool of sheep. As a rule cattle do not eat it when the seeds 
are ripe, especially when there is other grass, but after the needles 
fall they feed on the stems and leaves. Mixed with curly mesquite 
and buffalo grass in quantities and with fair proportions of the sev- 
eral varieties of the grama grasses, it helps to make a pasture which 
is all that reasonable stockmen and farmers could desire. It is among 
the first of the native pasture grasses to green out in the early spring, 
and all through an average winter in the section green shoots are to 
be found about the roots, which are protected by the cured stems 
that cling thereto. Its drought-resisting qualities are greater than 
almost any other native pasture grass. No other grass spreads so 
rapidly when given a chance to mature its seed. It is safe to say 
that it is about the earliest of all the pasture grasses, is as fatten- 
ing as the best, is more generally distributed than any other, and 
more readily reseeds itself than the others, and hence contributes more 
than any other to the annual renewal of the range. The more of it 
there is on a central Texas cow ranch the more valuable the range. 
No special tests were deemed necessary to determine its general value, 
but roots were taken up and transplanted to determine whether it could 
be used to advantage in covering naked spots in pastures. The bunches 
so planted grew and developed satisfactorily. In order to determine 
how far it could be utilized in efforts to renew ranges, furrows were 
plowed from east to west across about 10 acres of station pasture land. 
This was done in early spring, when the seeds of the needle grass had 
matured and fallen to the ground. The prevailing south winds blew 
them by millions into and across these furrows, where they were caught 
- by the soft plowed soil, and the following spring the furrows were well 
seeded to this grass. Elsewhere in this report the particulars of this 
experiment are given. 
RescuE Grass (Bromus unioloides). 
This is not a native grass of central Texas. Not until 1898 was it 
noticed by the writer in this section. Then he found it only in the 
court-house yard in Sweetwater, Nolan County, and along the reser- 
vation of the Texas and Pacific Railroad, which extends east to west 
across several central Texas counties. Stockmen in several counties 
stated that they had seen it occasionally in their sections, and in some 
neighborhoods it was reported in quantities sufficient to constitute a 
rather important factor in the make-up of the ranges. In 1899, and 
again in 1900, a few bunches were noticed in different parts of Taylor 
County, away from the railroad, and it is very probable that it will 
soon spread over that and the adjoining counties. It is believed that 
the first introduction was due to the seed falling from the moving 
