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n <br />`J <br />Smooth brome grows best in regions of rather light rainfall and moderate summer <br />temperatures. It is most popular in the Dakotas, Montana, and western Canada <br />where it grows luxuriantly and produces an abundance of palatable and nutritious <br />forage. This plant is one of the most palatable of all grasses, being relished <br />by all classes of livestock especially during the spring and early summer. How- <br />ever, cattle and horses graze it more than sheep and goats. <br />This grass normally produces an abundance of viable seed except at the higher <br />elevations where the seasons are too short for a seed crop. Good stands are usu- <br />ally secured and, if grazed lightly the first year, they increase rapidly and <br />form a complete sod the second or third year. Smooth brome is often one of the <br />major constituents of many pasture mixtures, and is highly recommended for use in <br />western Canada and the northwestern United States. <br />Throughout its entire range, volunteer plants from the cultivated fields have <br />gained sparse and scattered footholds on many of the mountain ranges, particu- <br />larly in the semiarid regions of the West and Northwest. This species is fre- <br />quently found at all elevations up to 9,000 feet. It will grow as high as 10,500 <br />feet in central Utah but does not reseed at that elevation. It often makes a <br />heavy growth of 2 feet or more on the deep, black clay loams of meadows and can- <br />yons but also thrives on the dry loose soils of the slopes and hills and succeeds <br />fairly well on sandy soils. <br />Smooth brome is one of the best cultivated species introduced into the western <br />mountains. It has been widely used by the Forest Serice in the artificial <br />reseeding of mountain ranges and has proved well adapted for the rehabilitation <br />of overgrazed, eroded and burned over range lands. Good stands are usually <br />obtained in fairly moist rather deep soils, where the species develops an exten- <br />sive root system which frequently penetrates to depths of 5 feet or more, binds <br />the soil firmly, and fortifies the plant to withstand grazing and unusual drought <br />conditions. <br />2-76 <br />