Report of the Botanist, Dr. Geo Vasey for the Year 1888, with Illustrations

Washington: Government Printing Office, 1889. Softcover. Very good. Author's Edition," printed separately, from the Annual Report of the Department of Agriculture for the Year 1888. Original sewn wrappers. Printed slip reading "Compliments of J.M. Rusk, Secretary of Agriculture" tipped in on verso of front wrapper. pp. 3-5-324 + 13 plates. Light creasing to wrappers; very good. Vesey's year was occupied with directing efforts to identify the best grasses to grow for forage in different parts of the country. He notes the establishment of experimental stations in Texas and Kansas to investigate grasses for arid conditions, and another in Mississippi to study grasses suitable for cultivation in the South. Several individual grasses are described and illustrated. Following this is a report (pp. 311-324) on "The Pastoral Resources of Montana" by F.W. Anderson, which discusses the natural resources, climate and geography of Montana in general and the terrirotory's suitability for stock-raising in particular. Anderson provides brief descriptions of more than fifty native grasses and concludes that "Montana is blessed with a great variety of nutritious grasses adapted to all kinds and conditions of soil...Every one of them fills an important niche in pastoral vegetation.