NATIVE GRASSES. 35 



farmers. In consequence there is a great deal of hostility between the 

 sheepmen and the ranchers. Attempts have been made by the former 

 at various times to drive their flocks up the St. Mary valley, so as to 

 reach the rich pasture grounds on the Clearwater divide, but the threats 

 of the farmers have so far prevented them. The sheep do no more dam- 

 age to the coniferous trees than do the cattle and horses, and there is no 

 reason, except local hostility, why the sheep herders should not be per- 

 mitted to utilize the grass lands on the high divides. Small flocks of 

 sheep are owned here and there by the resident fanners. They are, not 

 allowed to range through the forest at will, but are pastured in the 

 near vicinity of home. Their number is insignificant. 



The cultivated grasses which furnish hay are limited almost exclu- 

 sively to one species, timothy. Bottom lands high enough to be above 

 the reach of freshets are sown to this kind of grass, but the cleared 

 bench lauds are, or rather become, too dry, and they are therefore 

 devoted to wheat or rye. 



The small number of the species of grasses found in the Cceur 

 d'Alenes has already been referred to. Not only are the timbered 

 tracts noticeable in this respect, but many of the meadows as well. In 

 the lands adjacent to the slack-water courses of the rivers where the 

 elevation is insufficient to place them above high-water mark there are 

 hundreds of acres in solid bodies upon which not one species of grass 

 is to be found. They are covered with various kinds of sedges, poor 

 and innutritions in quality, but nevertheless commonly cut for hay for 

 want of anything better. 



The species of grasses which furnish the bulk of the natural pasturage 

 in the bottom lands are the following: 



(iraphephorum woljfii, Vasey. A beautiful species in tin- low meadows throughout the 

 St. Mary basin. 



Phleitm alpinum L. Found very sparingly along the St. Mary River and extending 

 up into the subalpine heights. (No. 447 from Stevens Peak, altitude 1,650 

 meters, or 5,400 feet.) 



Alopecurii8 genieulatm L. A grass usually growing in still or running water, hut 

 occasionally met with in low places that dry up in the summer and then cover- 

 ing considerable areas with a close matted growth. (No. 1329.) It is called 

 "wild timothy " by the farmers. Cattle do not seem to eat it except when forced 

 by hunger. 



Alopecurus occidentalis Scribner. A rare grass in the meadows along the St. Mary 

 River in the central and upper portions. 



Jgrostis tenuis Vasey. Very plentiful in all the meadows in the central portions of 

 the St. Joseph and St. Mary valleys. 



Agrostis xcabra Willd. With the preceding, hut not so plentiful. 



EutonUi obtusata Gray, Poa serotina Ehrh., Deschampsia elongate, Munro. and Des- 

 champsia caespitom (L.) Beanv. These four species occur now in the open 

 meadows, now in the forest, and again in the thickets bordering swamps. 



Elymus londntxatus Presl, and Elymus glaucus Buckl. Two grasses almost exclu- 

 sively confined to the slack-water portions of the valleys. 



Festuca rubra L., Melica spectabilis Scribner, Trhetum ranescrns Bnckl., and Stipa 

 viridula Trin. Common in the middle and central portions of the St. Joseph 

 and St. Mary valleys. 



