i8 
Bulletin 103. 
IV. NATIVE PASTURES AND MEADOWS. 
Colorado has some most nutritious native grasses. While the 
grass is short and sparse in many parts of our ranges, when not 
overstocked, it keeps the stock in excellent condition. 
The hay made from native grass commands a premium in the 
market. Much of our very best quality hay grows above the irri¬ 
gation ditches. One of our most hardy and best native hay grasses 
is the Western Wheat Grass (Agropyrum occidentale), known lo¬ 
cally as Colorado Blue Stem. This is a leafy grass, forms an even 
sod, and experiments show it can be sown the same as brome grass 
or meadow fescue, with good success. 
A farmer near Fort Collins sowed three acres of Blue Stem 
with a nurse crop this spring, and has a good stand of grass on 
cultivated ground. He sold the Blue Stem hay from a native grass 
meadow for five to six dollars a ton more than he could have ob¬ 
tained for his alfalfa hay. His native hay is always of good quality 
and sells from $12 to $16 per ton in the market. 
Native meadows may be made profitable when good native 
hay grasses are carefully chosen. The underground stems of many 
of these grasses give them good drouth resisting power and causes 
them to thicken rapidly, making finer and therefore superior quality 
hay, yielding from one and one half to two and one half tons per 
acre. Many arroyas or lower level areas furnish favorable locations 
for Blue Stem meadows. 
The writer will be glad to assist anyone who wishes to start 
a Blue Stem or Grama Grass meadow. 
IV. PRINCIPLE OF CAPILLARITY. 
Water in the soil used in the plant economy is known as capil¬ 
lary water. The water found in the bottom of postholes dug in the 
wet ground or standing on the surface of the ground is called 
ground water or free water. This free water flows 
under the force of gravity, as does the water in our irrigation 
ditches. When the ground becomes thoroughly saturated all the 
spaces between the grains of soil become filled with water. This 
cuts off all air from plants and they drown or suffocate. 
Ground or free water is not in that particular form available 
to the plant. When it sinks into the soil and later comes up in small 
quantities in the capillary tubes of the soil, it is the essential capil¬ 
lary water which aids in dissolving plant food in the soil so the 
root hairs can utilize said food. Plants get all the water they use 
through their roots. When the texture of the soil is just right and 
the amount of moisture ample, the soil grains and granules will be 
surrounded by this water as a thin sheet or film. This is continuous 
