ECONOMIC CONDITIONS CHANGED. 



9 



Climate/ soil, and topography ^ are the factors determining the 

 native vegetation. As these factors are all fixed and unchangeable to 

 any appreciable extent, the native vegetation is also fixed and un- 

 changeable so far as one lifetime is concerned, except for the limited 

 effects of overgrazing and the effect of increased or dinunished burn- 

 ing by fire. 



Yet along mth the idea of change of climate goes the belief that 

 the plant growth of the native prairies of Nebraska and Kansas has 

 changed decidedly as successful agriculture has pushed its way 

 westward. This notion prevails especially with reference to the long 

 grasses, many believing that even eastern Nebraska and eastern 

 Kansas were covered with buffalo and grama grasses 40 years ago, 

 and that settlement has caused the bluestem to drive the short 

 grasses westward 200 miles. This opinion has, however, no founda- 

 tion in fact. Wlien the Plains were first settled there were no elements 

 in the flora that had not assumed their proper places. Neither the 

 long grasses nor the short grasses were newcomers. Both had fought 

 the battle for supremacy and each held its chosen ground — the ground 

 which it still holds, except as overgrazing or burning has disturbed 

 the equilibrium. If the stock is removed, the floral covering even on 

 the overgrazed land again assumes its original character, showing 

 conclusively that the character of the plant growth is a fixed resultant 

 of natural causes and is not determined or changed by any obscure 

 and intangible force following in the wake of civilization. 



The appearance of the prairies changes noticeably in wet seasons. 

 The wheat-grass and other tall grasses and weeds are much more 

 in evidence, the buffalo and grama grasses grow much taller, and 

 annual plants are more conspicuous; but the real and permanent 

 characters of the flora are unchanged by even half a dozen wet years. 

 The relative sizes of plants, but not the kinds of perennials, change 

 with the season. 



The same native flora which existed on the Plains when they were 

 first settled occupies them to-day; the same climatic conditions which 

 caused the ruin of the early settlers must be met by the settlers of 

 to-day; the same soil conditions which the homesteader then found 

 confront the - 'dry farmer" of the present; the same grass mixture 

 which pastured the first homeseeker's stock and in some cases fur- 

 nished hay for the winter is still there. As man has not changed the 

 climate, neither has he changed the plant growth on the prairies. 



ECONOMIC CONDITIONS IN THE GREAT PLAINS CHANGED. 



What has just been stated is not that the farmer on the semiarid 

 Plains to-day has the same combination of conditions to meet that 

 he had 25 years ago when the region was first invaded. It has 



1 See Bulletin 55, Bureau of Soils, pp. 31 and 35. 2 idem, p. 30. 



215 



