GRASSES FOR CANAL BANKS IN WESTERN SOUTH DAKOTA. 27 
Brome-grass will not endure as severe drought as will western 
wheat-grass, but 1s more drought resistant than any of the other 
grasses tested. In certain plats on the ditch banks it maintained 
a good stand during the extremely dry seasons of 1910 and 1911. 
Tis habit of spreading by means of underground rootstocks enables 
it to form a good sod and makes it one of the best grasses for soil 
binding. (See fig. 1.) 
WESTERN WHEAT-GRASS. 
Western wheat-grass (Agropyron smithii) is native to western 
South Dakota and is the most valuable pasture and hay grass of the 
region. On the drv plains it forms, with buffalo grass, the chief 
forage for the range stock, and in the creek valleys, where it 1s some- 
times watered by overflow from the streams, it makes a thick growth 
and is the chief native hay grass. It is extremely drought resistant 
and yet will endure a great amount of flooding. It is the most re- 
sistant to alkali of the grasses mentioned in this paper. In the 
field experiments of Mr. T. H. Kearney? it proved to be the 
most resistant to alkali of any of the grasses tested. On the 
dry ditch banks it is slow in starting growth, but when once 
established it makes a tough, permanent sod. The seed can not 
be obtained commercially, but can usually be harvested in favor- 
ably situated places along the creek bottoms. In 1909 the writer 
thrashed 100 pounds of seed from a few bundles which were cut 
in. an hour’s time with a common grain binder. The germi- 
nation of the seed is often rather poor, so that a large quantity, about 
30 or 40 pounds per acre, should be used. The chief objection to 
western wheat-grass is its slow early growth which makes it long 
in establishing itself. Its valuable characters—drought endurance, 
alkali resistance, ability to endure flooding, and good sod-producing 
habit—make western wheat-grass one of the best of soil binders. 
In places where a native sod is cut through in making the ditches, 
the surviving plants of western wheat-grass at the edge of the cut 
will extend their growth up the canal bank, so that in a few years 
a geod covering is naturally produced. This, however, will only 
occur where the grass is already present at the edge of the bank 
and not in cultivated fields where the native sod has been destroyed. 
SLENDER WHEAT-GRASS. 
Slender wheat-grass (Agropyron tenerum) makes a comparatively 
rapid growth and is valuable to give quick results in a mixture. This 
grass, unlike western wheat-grass, is a bunch grass and does not 
form a continuous sod unless planted very thickly. It is not nearly 
as drought resistant as either brome-grass or western wheat-grass. 
B 1 Toc. cit. 
[Cir. 115] 
