OCR Text |
Show Good Grass Increases Water Penetration On Range Land TUCSON, June 16 AgTioul-ural AgTioul-ural experts 'have declared for years t.iat a good' covering of range grasses helps to hold rainfall rain-fall and permits raore moisture io penetrate the soil, and now scientists at the Soil Conservation Conserva-tion Exiperiment Station at Tucson Tuc-son have additional scientific proof of this contention. The station's researdh staff, traded by E. L. Beutmer, laid out three range plots to determine determ-ine the effect of vegetation on the intak; of water into the soil of a s:mi-arid country. On the first plot, iwihioh had a thick covering of black grama .and o.lher grasses, 82.8 per cent of the waver soaked ir.to the soil. On a 'nearby plot, .wthidh A'as severely ovengrazid, only .u.2 per cent of the moisture filtered fil-tered into :.be ground. This meant that nearly 42 per cent of to; wa.er quickly ran off the overgrazed range, carrying top-oil top-oil and causing erosion. To prove i.hat grass roots and orgaoic ma.ter ihelow the surface: of the ground are also important in moisture retention, Beiutnar and his associates clipped all the j vegeta.ion cn a thickly -grassed ; area. O.-j this clipped area, 73.3 l . er cent of th; moisture so'ak'ed i'.-.i.o the soil, thereby showing .Lie elit'ectiveness of grass roots and organic matter in holding rainfall. Overgrazir.g mot only causes l.vater to run off quickly but also has an effect on itlne type of grass which survives. On the overgrazed over-grazed plot, iplans were chiefly inniual grasses with meager root systems, B'eutner reported, iamd .the soil became 'bare and compact com-pact during dry seasons. Om the deneely vegetated area, tt-.owever, perennial grasses flour-lsijed flour-lsijed and provided soil protection protec-tion throughout toe year. "Their stems and leaves sloped down runoff ar.d prevented soil :w ashing," ash-ing," Bvutner explained. "The dead plant matter ifiurnished surface litter ar.d contributed organic irr.atter to ithe soil." The research station has also .made extensive studies on meth-eds meth-eds of controlling arrciyos, on ai.ificial respecting of range .iii.-.d, and on, i.ihe effects of eros-.on-control structures. to their res.edinig and transplanting trans-planting experiments, the research re-search meo learned that sacaiton, dnamiso, Rothrock's grama, feather fea-ther grass, vine mesquite grass and LJnjria'r.a's love grass will survive extreme draughts and temporary illood conditions. During Dur-ing a t) AO-year i.rial, igiant panic &ra'.. also i.TJade good growth in areas behind water-spreading structures where moisture condition's condi-tion's w. re favorable. The experiments -are b. in.g carried or.i through the coqpena-'tion coqpena-'tion of the Soil Conservation Service and the Arizona Agricultural Agri-cultural Experiment Station, lieutner, the project supervisor, is assi 'ted by Duru m Anderson, range ccologist, and Joel E. K.i.dher, assistant soil tedhniolo-gist. |