Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 January 1886 — The Plains of British America. [ARTICLE]

The Plains of British America.

In relation to the differences between the soil and. vegetation in our Northwestern Territories and those of British America Ernest Ingersoll writes to Science: N orth of the line the grass is dense and long, and the flowering herbage is profuse. West of the South Saskatchewan this gives place to a greater, more plains-like scantiness of vegetation, to be sure, but nowhere is the bareness and aridity of the southern plains equaled. This is due to the greater moisture in earth and air, and/ to the extraordinary fertility of the soil,' Manitoba producing an average of 21j to 22 bushels of wheat to the acre, or 4 to 5 bushels in excess of the average of any other similar space on the continent. The soil is‘coal-black, and declares its richness at first sight. Dr. Robert Bell, of the Canadian geological survey, discussed the causes of this fertility before the Canadian Royal Society May 23, 1883. He pointed out that the materials were the bestpossible, having been derived from the glacial drift of the north, mingling sand and X gravel with the cretaceous marls spread over all British America. Having this favorable constitution, Dr. Bell assigns to the moles the chief agency in the formation of the thick top-layer of vegetable mold which is now the joy of the farmer. In the Assinaboine valley the moles have thrown up almost every foot of the soil into hummocks, each containing a large shovelful of earth, and burying completely the grass and vegetation over a space a foot or more square. The vegetable matter thus buried decays and becomes incorporated with the soil, so that the process is analagous to plowing under the soil. This work of the moles not only enenriches but refines the soil. In making their burrows, they select the fine material and cast it up to the surface, leaving behind the coarser. The effect of this is similar to that alleged by Darwin of the earthworms (which do not exist in the Northwest Territories), since, in the course of time, all the stones are buried. Their labor is supplemented by that of the gophers, sper--inophiles, and badgers, the last-named digging deeply, and heaving up large quantities of gravelly subsoil, which the moles work into and improve,while all bury much vegetable rubbish as nests and food. This beneficent animal agency nearly ceases, however, when the elevated, hard, and stony “third steppe,” called the Grand Coteau du Missouri, is reached, and when the mountains are approached, where the soil is clayey. About one hundred species of trees and shrubs are recorded as growing on the Northwestern plains, while the list of herbaceous plants is a very long one. A good many noxious weeds have been introduced with civilization, and some flourish most aggressively. The worst pests are Canada thistles, wild mustard, oats, and buckwheat. The Thlaspi arvensis, 6r mithridatic mustard, commonly known as “penny cress,” is a great nuisance in the Red River valley, where it sprouts and flowers in spring, surrounded by. snowbanks, and exposed to severe frosts. Sunflowers rise abundantly wherever the soil has been disturbed, and ought to be utilized. Insect and fungiod pests to crops are remarkably scarce*, though the Rocky Mountain locust has at times invaded the Red Rivervalley. The grasses are mauy, and those called “buffalo-grass” attract the first attention. True buffalo-grass, however, is not found north of the boundary. The buffalo-grasses of that region are Butchelona oligostachia, representing the gramina grasses of the Southwestern United States; and Stipea sparta, more often called “spear-grass, ” or by several names indicating what Dr. Holmes calls its “diabolish” characteristics. The young spring leaves of the Stipea sparta are the most succulent and nutritive of all the prairie grasses, which; as a rule, are harsh and sedgelike ; they are short, and form themselves into tussocks (most notably in dry uplands), which, though useless in making hay, provide a very valuable pasturage. It spreads over the entire Northwest, and is most plentiful on the buffalo plains, where it stood as the staff of life to the of wild cattle once ranging those limitless opens.