42 The Colorado Experiment Station 
Plains, and in many parts of sagebrush territory, particularly above 
7,000 feet, snow accumulates to considerable depths and remains 
on the ground for long periods. 
Sagebrush, as a dominating plant community, flourishes under 
a quite wide range of temperature conditions (see Table XVI). 
The mean annual temperature ranges from about 52° to as low as 
37° in the Gunnison area, North Park and Middle Park, and the 
mean summer from 76° to about 56°. The frostless season is ex¬ 
ceedingly variable. At Grand Junction it averages 183 days, while 
at Walden, in North Park, a typical sagebrush country, freezing 
temperatures may be expected every month, the average length of 
the frostless season being 56 days. The absolute annual range of 
temperature is high (102° to 129°). 
All in all, sagebrush grows under a wide range of environ¬ 
mental conditions. 
Agriculture in the Sagebrush Shrub-Steppe .—Some of the best 
general farming and orchard lands of Colorado are sagebrush land. 
Typical sagebrush soil is well-drained, usually deep, and always 
practically free of “alkali.” Sagebrush is not a reliable indicator 
of temperature conditions, for it is equally well-developed in the 
lower valleys of the west which have a frostless season suitable 
to the growth of peaches, sweet cherries, and other tender crops, 
and in North Park at an altitude of 8,000 feet, where the frostless 
season is less than 75 days, where the date of the last spring frost 
is seldom earlier than June 15, and where in many years freezing 
temperatures are experienced every month. However, from ob¬ 
servation throughout Colorado, and judging from the crops grown 
on sagebrush land at its upper altitudinal limit, it may be con¬ 
cluded that wherever sagebrush forms an extensive and dominat¬ 
ing growth, temperature conditions are such as not to make im¬ 
possible, except in unusual years, the maturing of timothy, alsike, 
oats, wheat, barley and rye, alfalfa, potatoes, Canadian field peas, 
strawberries, raspberries, currants, gooseberries, and all of the 
hardy vegetables. It is not to be assumed, however, that the mere 
presence of the sagebrush species, or the occurrence of small 
patches at high altitudes, indicates temperature conditions in the 
surrounding country favorable to these crops. 
In the greater part of the sagebrush area there is a consider¬ 
able amount of snow, and a snow cover during long periods. This 
condition favors the wintering over of low perennials, such as al¬ 
falfa and strawberries. Furthermore, the stored moisture of win¬ 
ter precipitation is often sufficient to carry spring-sown annuals • 
far into July. Dry land agriculture of the sagebrush country of 
