The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1884-11-14
THE GRIZTNG LANDS.


Interesting fUftS concerning Utc tUtttc-
Feeding Lands ofthe Hest Character
Of the Grasses.
The department of agriculture has issued a
volume on the agricultural grasses of the
United States, which contains some interest
ing facts of the winter grazing possibilities of
a section of the country that was heretofore
supposed, by most people, to be too cold and
bleak and barren, to sustain any sort of life in
winter, much less be valuable grazing
grounds, which may be relied upon to sustain
great herds of cattle in the winter weather.
The plains, it says, lying west of the Tooth
meridian, together with much broken and
mountainous country, nearly treeless and
arid, are nearly useless for the purposes of
agriculture but are becoming more and more
important as the great feeding ground for the
multitudes of cattle which supply the wants
of the settled regions of our country as well
as the constantly incres sing foreign demand.
The pasturage of this region consists essen
TALLY of native grasses, some OF which have
acquired wide reputation for their rich and
nutritious properties, for their ability to
withstand the dry season, and for the quality
of drying or self-curing so as TO be available
for pasturage in winter This quality Is due
probably to the nature of the grasses them
selves, and to the effect OF the arid climate.
1t is well known that at lower attitudes in
moist countries they have much succulence,
they grow rapidly, and their tissues are soft,
a severe frost checks or kills their growth,
which Immediately results in rapid decay;
whereas In the ARD climate OF tne pldlnS Tue
grasses have much less suculence, and there
fore when arrested by frost the tissues are
not engorged with water, the desscating in
fiuences of the climate prevent decay and the
grass is kept on the ground in good condition
for the winter forage. General Ben Afford,
of the army, has recently published an article
on the subject of these winter-cured grasses,
and states that they only acquire this property
on land which is 5000 feet above the level of
sea. The region having such an altitude in
cudes, he says, all nearly up to the timber
line of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Ne
vada, Colorado and New Mexico, five-sixths
of Arizona, one-half of Dakota, one-fourth of
Texas one-fifth of Kansas, and one-siXth each
of California, Oregon and Washington terri
tory embracing about one-fourth of the area
of the United States.
In this article General Afford says that not
only are the grasses thus cured but the snow
which falls in winter in that high region is so
dry and fine that it is blown into drifts, and
not more than one-fifth of the soil is in any
but extreme cases covered, and it is also so
dry and fine that it falls Off the backs of the
cattle and does not wet their coats and cause
them suffering from the cold as in most other
parts of the country. Cattle are thus, he says,
enabled to endure the outdoor life in winter
and sustain themselves in good order upon
he dried grasses which retain in concentrated
form the sugar, gluten and other constituents
of their formation.