20 RANGE IMPROVEMENT IN CENTRAL TEXAS. 
Notwithstanding the dry weather of January and February and to 
March 15, this ground was in fair condition to receive seeds at the last- 
mentioned date. It contained but little moisture, but on account of 
the freezes during January and February it was easily pulverized. In 
anticipation of rain, planting of grass and forage plant seeds was begun 
March 15 and continued until May 4. During April the rainfall 
was about normal for the season, namely, 2.96 inches, but on account 
of the dry weather and the cold condition of the ground during 
March many of the seeds planted that month did not germinate. 
Those that did germinate, however, grew rapidly, and as the rainfall 
during May and June was all that could reasonably have been desired, 
everything in the garden, including the weeds, grew very rapidly. 
The garden had been laid off in plots 20 feet square, separated into 
subdivisions, according to the quantities of seeds on hand. Asa rule 
the seeds were sown broadcast, hence it was impracticable to use plows 
in fighting the weeds, and in the effort to get rid of them by hand 
weeding much damage was necessarily done, some plants being tram- 
pled and many others pulled up with the weeds. All these difficulties 
were exceedingly discouraging, but they suggested methods that later 
were adopted with eminently satisfactory results. 
During July the temperature rose to 102°, and the rainfall fell off — 
from 5.45 inches in June to 1.38 inches. Hot winds blew nearly every 
day during the month, and by the 1st of August the garden plants, 
which up to about the end of June had been full of sap, presented the 
appearance of having been scalded, where they were not actually dead. 
During August there was but one rain, and that only 0.10 inch, on 
the 16th, and during September there was but 0.44 inch, on the 7th. 
From that time to October 16 there was practically no precipitation, 
and then it was only 0.01 inch, and from the 16th to the 26th the condi- 
tions were about as unfavorable as could be imagined. Nevertheless, 
many of the garden plants to be hereafter specially mentioned sur- 
vived, and when the drought of 1898, scarcely less severe than that of 
1887, was broken on the 26th of October, it was surprising how many 
of them were, in fact, still looking vigorous. On that date there was 
a rainfall of 2.89 inches, and at once the several varieties of alfalfa, 
sulla, sanfoin, and vetches began to green out, and between then and 
the early frosts of November each made an astonishing growth. 
No attempt will be made here to give the details of the very many 
erass-garden experiments conceived and worked out with much care. 
That many of them demonstrated the impracticability of the methods 
adopted were not surprising; but, as emphasizing the necessity for 
trying others, these failures have special value. 
Perhaps it may be well to mention the fact that part of the 10-acre 
grass garden was too rocky for cultivation at all, a part was too 
gravelly to be satisfactorily cultivated, and all of it was thin and dry. 
