Prairie grass

“ On their eastern and northern border the Prairie plains merge with the adjacent forested plains, and on the west from Mexico northward to the subarctic forest pass by still less tangible gradations into the more elevated and drier Great plateaus or high plains, where bunch-grass, with bare intervals between the scattered tufts, takes the place of the continuous sod of the true prairies. The reasons for the change from forest to prairie and beyond to the land of the bunch-grass as one travels from east to west across the interior basin, lie in differences in the humidity of the climate. ”

“ A morning ride across the Grand-Pré convinced me that the natural opulence of the valley had not been exaggerated. These once desolate and bitter marshes, reclaimed from the sea by the patient labor of the French peasant, are about three miles broad by twenty miles long. The prairie grass, even at this time of year, is knee-deep, and, as I was informed, yields, without cultivation, from two to four tons to the acre. The fertility of the valley in other respects is equally great. The dyke lands are intersected by a network of white causeways, raised above the level of the meadows. ”

“ Here, then, we have, he continues, a grass that will insure a "good catch" if the seed is fresh; that can endure severe drouth; that produces an abundant supply of foliage; that is valuable for pasture in early spring, on account of its early and luxuriant growth; that makes a valuable hay; that shoots up quickly after being cut; and affords a fine crop of aftermath for grazing during the late fall and winter months.
The Professor is very anxious that the farmers of Kansas should test this grass during the season of 1883. ”

“ Where the dryness of the summers make the lives of trees precarious the nature of the soil, whether coarse or fine, becomes the controlling factor. In the prairie region where the soil is more open and porous than usual, although other conditions remain the same, as in the Cross Timbers of Texas, trees flourish; while intervening areas where the soil is fine are typical prairies. Again, where the climatic conditions become critical, as during long, dry summers, the grass and other vegetation burns readily, fire spreads rapidly and widely, and young trees are destroyed. ”

“ We travelled on about a hundred miles farther, when we came to a large prairie, which name the French have given to extensive tracts of land, mostly level, destitute of trees, and covered with tall, coarse grass. They are generally dreary plains, void of water, and rendered more arid by the Indian custom of setting fire to the high grass once or twice a year to start the game that has taken shelter there, which occasions a hard crust unfavorable to any vegetable more substantial than grass. ”

“ The prairies are all burnt over twice a year—in midsummer, and about the first of winter. Immediately after the burning, the grass springs up again; so that there is an abundant supply all the year round. No country in the world can be compared to this, in the ease and facility of raising stock. All the herdsman has to do, is to look after them, so they may not stray away, and some portion of the year, yard them to prevent their growing wild. The prairie grass is of a peculiar species, un [Pg 176] like any thing we have at the north ”

“ Every closely observant person, living for any length of time on our western prairies, is familiar with the fact that when the rank and hardier grasses, usually growing thereon, are effectually fed down by stock, and especially by sheep, the prairie grasses disappear, and the ground at once comes in with white clover, and the other nutritious gramma or grasses of our common pasture lands. No seed has been sown in these localities, and none could have been found had every square inch of the surface soil been examined by the most powerful microscope. ”

“ The timber in the mountains is pine, spruce, fir, and other terebinthines. Though deficient in timber, the terrace plains below have generally a fine soil. The prairies, like those in the Mississippi valley, are covered with coarse grass and a variety of beautiful flowers. Among the prairie plants are two or three kinds of roots, which furnish food to the savages. Wild sage is found in abundance; it grows of the size and height of a small tree, and on these extensive plains is one of the principal articles of fuel. ”

“ Five distinctive plant communities share this prairie, coexisting in a dynamic relationship which depends upon local climate variations.
Even to the untrained eye, it is evident that the basic short-grass pattern has been modified by the shape of the land and by the Niobrara River. In the stream valley, along the tributaries, and on shaded north-facing slopes, the shortgrass community is mixed with taller grasses. If a dry cycle began, the short grasses would take over the whole area by migrating downslope from the exposed prairies. ”

“ There will be more grass seed planted this spring than ever before, and the farmers will be guided by the conditions on which the best successes seem to have been obtained. But this seeding will not give us much grass for this coming summer. What must we do? I write for our Western farmers who have no clover, orchard grass, blue grass, but have in their cultivated fields.
CRAB GRASS.
This grass, the most troublesome weed of the West, smothering our gardens and converting our growing corn-fields into dense meadows, makes the best hog pasture in the world, while it lasts. ”

“ The native prairie grasses have been in considerable part displaced by grasses introduced from more humid regions. Weeds are very numerous (about 125) ; and some, notably the sand-bur (Solanum rostratum) , cockle-bur, and tumble-weeds among indigenous, and the Russian thistle (Salsola tragus) and purslane among non-indigenous species, are agricultural pests. Nothing can surpass in beauty the rank grasses and bright flowers that grow on the lowlands and rolling uplands of a virgin prairie—now hardly to be found in the state. ”

“ The greater portion of the country is, of course, prairie; these prairies are covered with blue grass, muskeet grass, clovers, sweet prairie hay, and the other grasses common to the east of the continent of America. Here and there are scattered patches of plums of the green-gage kind, berries, and a peculiar kind of shrub oaks, never more than five feet high, yet bearing a very large and sweet acorn; ranges of hazel nuts will often extend thirty or forty miles, and are the abode of millions of birds of the richest and deepest dyes. ”

“ The rainfall is exceedingly light, therefore the vegetation is very scanty though hardy. The soil, however, has proven fertile wherever irrigation has taken place, and the results have been surprising. The national government’s Truckee-Carson system irrigates 160,000 acres. (See Irrigation) . Barley, oats, spring wheat, potatoes and vegetables are grown, as well as pears, applies and cherries in the cultivated sections. Stockraising is quite an extensive industry, for the hay-crop, the abundance of prairie-grass and the white sage-brush furnish food-stuffs for the entire year. ”

“ Second, grass populations change with the seasons. Cool-season grasses (foxtail barley, Indian rice grass, Kentucky bluegrass, needle-and-thread grass, Sandberg blue grass, and slender wheatgrass) flourish during spring and fall. During the warm summer the blue grama, inland saltgrass, little bluestem, prairie cordgrass, prairie sandreed, and switchgrass predominate. This natural adaptation to seasonal conditions uses the greatest potential of the growing season and at the same time provides species that will flourish in both wet and dry cycles. ”

“ It gradually dries and cures like hay, so that animals eat it freely, and will fatten upon it even in mid-winter. It is seldom that any grain is fed to stock in either of these territories. Several of the varieties of grass growing upon the slopes of the Rocky Mountains are of excellent quality ”

“ This plan, however, should never be attempted unless the animals are well supplied with grain, and kept in good condition. They will eat the old grass in the spring, but it does not, in this climate, as in Utah and New Mexico, afford them sufficient sustenance. The grass, after the 1st of May, is good and abundant upon this road as far as the South Pass, from whence there is a section of about 50 miles where it is scarce ”

“ As I looked about me I felt that the grass was the country, as the water is the sea. The red of the grass made all the great prairie the colour of winestains, or of certain seaweeds when they are first washed up. And there was so much motion in it; the whole country seemed, somehow, to be running. ”

“ They are found to be excellent for wheat, to improve by cultivation, and usually to produce a good crop of corn the first season.
The prairies generally support a heavy growth of grass—are free from timber, and may be divided into two classes. One is called dry, and the other is denominated wet prairies. The former possess a rich soil, are easily cultivated, and generally yield in rich abundance almost every kind of produce which might be expected to flourish in forty-two degrees north latitude, especially those on St. Joseph's river. ”

“ Carl sat musing until the sun leaped above the prairie, and in the grass about him all the small creatures of day began to tune their tiny instruments. Birds and insects without number began to chirp, to twitter, to snap and whistle, to make all manner of fresh shrill noises. The pasture was flooded with light; every clump of ironweed and snow-on-the-mountain threw a long shadow, and the golden light seemed to be rippling through the curly grass like the tide racing in. ”

“ On the higher prairies the grass is of a superior quality, and its seed almost like wheat. On those which are low and humid it grows rank and tough, and sometimes so high that a man on horseback may pass through it unobserved. The crowding of vegetation, owing to the over-fertility of the soil, causes all to tend upward, so that most of the growth is extra high, rather than spreading in breadth. In the very early spring, the low grass is interspersed with quantities of violets, strawberry-blossoms, and other delicate flowers. ”

“ The meadows of the valley are generally moist, and in the springtime boggy. Later in the season they become firmer, and some parts of them where not in possession of sedges, afford an abundant growth of “wild Timothy;” blue joint, Canada red-top and clover. In addition to these nutritious meadow-grasses, there is growing on the coarse granite, sandy land, a hard, tough wire bunch grass unfit for grazing except when quite young. This grass is highly prized by the Indians for making baskets and small mats. ”

“ Among these, depending on the soil, are hundreds of prairie flowers which, during different parts of a single season, give quite different aspects to the region. Both the grasses and their associated herbs are well protected against too violent transpiration which their exposure to nearly continuous sunshine, high summer heat, and very considerable winds makes particularly active. In many places where the country is rolling, the lower and moister sites, besides developing more luxuriant growth of prairie plants, permits low shrubs, and in river bottoms even trees to flourish. ”

“ Rising from the valley, the soil becomes less productive, and in many places will not repay cultivation; while large portions of the uplands, particularly in the northern part of the state, produce good crops of wheat and other gram, as well as the best of apples, and are well adapted to grazing. The uplands are largely interspersed with rolling prairies, which are generally well watered, though Grand prairie, 90 m. long and 30 broad, situated between Arkansas and White rivers, is an exception, being almost entirely without water. ”

“ They, as well as the horses, subsist entirely on the indigenous grasses, at all seasons of the year; and such are the nutritious qualities of the herbage, that the former are always in condition for slaughtering, and the latter have as much flesh upon them as is desirable, unless (which is often the case) they are kept up at hard work and denied the privilege of eating, or are broken down by hard riding. The varieties of grass are very numerous, and nearly all of them are heavily seeded when ripe, and are equal, if not superior, as food for animals, to corn and oats. ”

“ In forming a mixture for pasture grasses, the peculiarities of each species should, therefore, be regarded: [170] as the time of flowering, the habits of growth, the soil and location on which it grows best, and other characteristics. Among the grasses found on cultivated lands, in this country, the following are considered as among the most valuable for ordinary farm cultivation; some of them adapted to pastures, and others almost exclusively to mowing and the hay crop: Timothy (Phleum pratense) . Meadow Foxtail (Alopecurus pratensis) . June, or Kentucky Blue Grass (Poa pratensis) . ”

“ Of the introduced grasses, those which are most likely to catch from early scattered seed are Australian and Italian rye grasses, orchard grass, wild oat grass and red top. You can get seed of all these from dealers in any quantity which you desire at from 15 to 30 cents a pound, according to the variety, and make a mixture of equal parts of each grass, which you can carry and scatter as you propose. Some of them will catch somewhere, particularly in spots where the shade modifies the summer heat and where seepage moisture reduces soil drought. ”