6 
Bulletin 61. 
an entire failure. Upon examination early in the following April however, so 
much improvement was noted that it was thought best to let the land alone, at 
least for one season, and note the result. By June first there was almost a com¬ 
plete stand of grass, so that sheep were pastured there the balance of the season 
till October, when the sheep being removed, the grass started up again during 
the warm days and frosty nights of October and November, showing a thicker 
stand than could be seen in the middle of summer. 
Late in May of 1900, about 14 acres of raw, unproductive land was sown to 
brome grass at the rate of about 15 pounds to the acre. Considering tha quality 
of the land, the lateness of the season, and the pressure of other work, this under¬ 
taking was very ill advised, and would seem to have promised nothing but failure 
from the first. However about half a stand was secured over a good portion of 
the land, and the coming spring will show what may be expected of this grass 
under the very worst conditions. 
In the spring of 1898 an experiment was tried on a neighboring farm, of sow¬ 
ing bromus on a high knoll, above reach of irrigation. This soil was a good 
quality of sandy loam, and having never been irrigated is better calculated to re¬ 
ceive and hold falling moisture than would soil which had been irrigated. A 
fairly good stand was secured here and it has gradually thickened since, produ¬ 
cing good pasture, and has been particularly noticed each spring as producing 
green pasturage at least two weeks before alfalfa or any other grass. 
April 9th, 1898, in a small field thickly sown with alfaifa, a strip 8 feet wide 
the length of the field was sown with Bromus inermis seed. Under ordinary 
treatment for alfalfa, this strip grew well, was cut three times each year and is 
still engaged in a struggle for supremecy with the king of the Colorado field. As 
both were thickly sown, neither crop is at its best, which would indicate that 
thinner sowing would be advisable where both are sown together. 
Trials at the Arkansas Valley Substation. 
H. H. GRIFFIN, Superintendent. 
April 22, 1892, a plat 145 feet long, 67 feet wide, was sown to 
seed of Bromus inermis. An excellent stand was secured, and the 
records report it growing ten inches tall and producing seed. In 
1894 this plat was harvested July 12th, and from the product 208 
pounds of cleaned seed was secured. By this time the sod had 
become very close, and most of the growth made was around the 
edges of the plat. Wherever it was sub irrigated the growth was 
from one to two feet high, but wherever flooded it became sod bound 
and made almost no growth. 
This was about the manner of its growth the succeeding years, 
until the present Superintendent took charge, in March, 1898. 
Noting that it was making a very poor showing, a portion was 
given a dressing of gypsum, and a sharp implement in the nature 
of a sub-soil plow was run through the other portion to cut up the 
sod, thinking it might do better were it relieved of the sodded con¬ 
dition. Neither remedy proved to be of any benefit. The only 
growth of any importance was the narrow fringe around the edges, 
or on the ditch banks, where it secured sub-irrigation. It does not 
