Short Grass Country.—The short grass country of Kansas figures slightly in the romances, Molly Warren's story in the Kansas Magazine of Sept., 1909, dealing with that section. The term "short grass" is as old as the settlement of the plains country, and was used in order to distinguish the point where prairie grass left off and buffalo (short) grass became plentiful. The term has within recent years come into general use, and applies to the western half of the state in which buffalo grass (q. v.) is the predominating natural forage. Not many years ago the "short grass" section of Kansas extended as far east as Salina, but with the introduction of tame grasses it has been pushed a little farther west, until by common consent it now begins at a point about the 98th degree of longitude in the central part of the state, the northern and southern borders extending slightly further west, the soil there being a little more fertile.

The short grass section therefore embraces portions of Harper, Kingman, Reno, Rice, Ellsworth, Lincoln, Mitchell, Jewell counties, and all of Smith, Osborn, Russell, Barton, Stafford, Pratt, Barber, Comanche, Edwards, Pawnec, Rush, Ellis, Rooks, Phillips, Norton, Graham, Trego, Ness, Hodgeman, Ford, Clarke, Meade, Lane, Gove, Sheridan, Decatur, Rawlins, Thomas, Logan, Wichita, Kearny, Grant, Stevens, Morton, Stanton, Hamilton, Greeley, Wallace, Sherman and Cheyenne.

PIONEER RESIDENCE, SHORT GRASS COUNTRY.