natural devices from the drying influence of the fierce summer heat. 

 The leaves and stems are covered with a coating of hairs, or are mealy 

 like the leaves of the common pigweed of cultivated lands, or the leaves 



and stems are mucilaginous like 

 those of cactus. In common with 

 all other plants native of alkaline or 

 salty soils, they contain considera- 

 ble quantities of salt and other 

 soluble constituents of the soil. All 

 of these characteristics tend to pro- 

 tect the foliage and prevent the 

 evaporation from the leaves of the 

 moisture which is necessary to the 

 continued existence of the plant. 

 Again in common with plants 

 indigenous to semidesert regions, 

 each individual produces an im- 

 mense quantity of seed to insure 

 reproduction of the species under 

 the very unfavorable conditions 

 which prevail. 



With the possible exception of 

 portions of California and Arizona, 

 the range of country in which the 

 saltbushes grow wild is relatively 

 much warmer than the grazing 

 regions of the United States. There 

 is never any snow and rarely frost, 

 the summer heat is more intense, 



FIG. 2.-Australiau saltbush (Atriplex ^^^ ^^^ periods of drought longer. 



leptocarpa). 



AMERICAN SALTBUSHES. 



The most valuable saltbushes are species of Chenopodium and Atriplex. 

 They are not cultivated plants and are not any better adapted to the 

 grazing regions of the United States than our own wild si3ecies of the 

 same genera. There are over thirty different kinds of American salt- 

 bush, only they are not so designated, in the region extending from 

 Montana, Colorado, and western Texas to the Pacific coast. Nearly all 

 of these are recognized by herders and graziers as furnishing consider- 

 able forage for sheep and cattle, and many of them have acquired local 

 importance under such names as sweet sage, white sage, or winter fat. 

 In dry seasons and during severe winters they are supplementary to 

 the native grasses. Their abundance adds value to the ranges. 



NOT A CULTIVATED FORAGE PLANT. 



These saltbushes are not cultivated plants. In many portions of 

 Australia they have become well nigh extinct through the same causes 

 that are leading to the extermination of our own native forage plants 

 and grasses — the overpasturing of the ranges and the consequent 

 destruction by too close feeding and by trampling. The introduction 

 into foreign countries of saltbush seed has been accomplished mainly 

 through the instrumentality of public-spirited scientists, notably through 



