Z AC AT ON AS A PAPER-MAKING MATERIAL. 
7 
Fig. 4.- 
and after the rainy season sends up new shoots profusely. These 
are relished by cattle while the tops are immature. Soon, however, 
the tops become so tough 
that stock refuse to eat 
them. The growth is al- 
most entirely a wild one 
from self-sown seed. The 
mature panicles are not 
unlike those of timothy. 
Unless checked by fire, 
cultivation, or the har- 
vesting of the roots, rice- 
root grass soon covers a 
field solidly. It is not 
uncommon to find areas 
many square miles in ex- 
tent covered densely with 
this wild grass. One of 
the fields harvested by 
Mr. McEwen was 3 miles 
wide and 7 miles long, 
covered almost entirely by 
a relatively pure stand of 
Epicampes macroura. 
The information that has been secured indicates the possibility of 
growing this grass successfully in some localities in the Southwest, 
especially for paper-produc- 
ing purposes. Three allied 
species grow scatteringly 
from Texas to California. 
Regarding the climate 
that prevails in the sections 
where zacaton-root harvest- 
ing is extensively carried 
on, Mr. McEwen states: 
We have no means of determin- 
ing the rainfall, but there is a 
considerable quantity of rain, and 
the morning dew is almost as 
heavy as the average small shower 
in the States. In Sayula it rains 
about three months of the year, 
the rest of the year being dry, and 
one of the most beautiful climates 
that you can possibly imagine. 
The rains, when they come, are 
very heavy and in the middle of the day the thermometer registers about 80° F but 
it is not uncommon for it to drop to 50° at night; this is a good average through the 
-Longitudinal section of a culm, X 343, showing 
sclereids and pith. 
Fig. 5.— Cross section of a leaf blade, X 
