30 RANGE IMPROVEMENT IN CENTRAL TEXAS. 
two former years was again tested, with many others. In the list 
hereafter given will be enumerated such grasses as, in the tests made, 
were shown to be worth cultivating in central Texas. 
NATIVE GRASSES THE BEST. 
As a general rule, the native grasses did very much better than the 
others, and the recommendation is made to central Texas stockmen 
and farmers that they place less reliance on the oftentimes extrava- 
gant claims made by interested dealers in seeds, etc., as to imported 
grass and forage plants, and devote more attention and time to those 
native to their respective sections. True, many valuable additions to 
our native plants are the results of intelligent importations from other 
countries and from one section of our country to another; but experi- 
mental work with foreign grasses, etc., is very likely to prove disap- 
pointing, while there is every reason to expect good results from the 
cultivation of good native varieties. It is not necessary to go outside 
of the Southwest, or of central Texas, indeed, to find a large number 
of native grasses quite equai in every way to the very best of the for- 
eign varieties that have been so industriously advertised by dealers 
and in the public prints. Professor Lamson-Scribner reports that 
there are from 800 to 900 distinct varieties of grasses native to the 
United States. More than 25 per cent of these are native to Texas, 
and within the comparatively limited territory included in what is 
being considered as central Texas, nearly, if not quite, 200 species are 
te be found, to say nothing of the large number of native clovers and 
other forage plants, exclusive of the grasses. 
With such natural resources practically at their very doors, central 
Texas stockmen and farmers need not look to foreign countries, or to 
other States, or even to other sections of their own State, for grasses 
and forage stuffs that may be cultivated to the best advantage. On 
every natural range about them, growing on their farms, along the fence 
rows, and wherever else they are allowed to grow, are such as are 
peculiarly adapted to the conditions of soil and climate that-obtain in 
the section. They are where they are because the soil and climate are 
favorable, and no experimental work is necessary to determine their 
adaptability and general value. 
EXPERIMENTS WITH THE COARSER FORAGE PLANTS. 
During this third year of station work practically every test made 
in the former years with the coarser forage plants was repeated and 
many were made with others. In the list of forage plants recom- 
mended for central Texas will be enumerated such as were found to 
be intrinsically valuable and adapted to the climate and soil conditions 
of the section. Ina general way it may be stated that each of a num- 
ber of varieties of sorghum was successfully grown. Some of them 
