38 



ticularly encouraging results are reported from central Colorado regrarcl- 

 ing the growing of field peas for forage, and the crop has done well in 

 many other parts of the region. Profitable crops of rape, vetch, and 

 esparcette are reported from Montana and elsewhere. 



Millet is more gericrally grown for hay than any other annual. Com- 

 mon millet and Hungarian are usually preferred for the average 

 uplands. Broom corn millet is sometimes grown as a grain crop, but 

 yields too lightly for a hay crop where the better varieties can be grown. 

 As a general rule all the millets are used as '' catch crops " rather than 

 as regular crops, and as such they fill an important place in north- 

 western agriculture. They are most commonly grown in the northern 

 part of the region. 



NATIVE GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. 



There are about 1*70 species and varieties of grasses known to be 

 indigenous to this region. Naturally a great majority of these are too 

 small or too rare to be of much importance in the production of hay or 

 pasturage. The most valuable species are quite widely distributed, 

 althougli occasionally a species of but local occurrence may be of con- 

 siderable importance in its particular locality, as is the case with some 

 of those occurring in the mountains. 



The great economic importance of the native grasses is at once appar- 

 ent when one recalls the many thousands of sheep, cattle, horses, and 

 mules that are raised in this region, and that depend entirely upon 

 the native grasses and forage plants for subsistence for from eight to 

 twelve months of the year. That the quality of the forage aftbrded is 

 excellent is shown by the fact that most of the vast numbers of fat 

 cattle and sheep annually shipped to the Eastern markets from this 

 region receive no other food than that furnished by the natural mead- 

 ows and pastures of the ranges. 



From the economic point of view the important native grasses of this 

 region may be classed into two groups, namely, meadow grasses and 

 pasture grasses. To be sure, no hard and fast line can be drawn, but as 

 a general thing the best pasture grasses are of little use for hay, and 

 within late years, at least, wherever good hay-producing grasses occur 

 in any great extent, they are fenced off from the open range and pre- 

 served for winter forage. 



NATIVE MEADOW OE HAY GRASSES. 

 LOWLAND MEADOWS. 



The grasses most abundant in the meadows at thelower altitudes are 

 usually quite different from those which i)red()raiiiate in the mountain 

 meadows, although it is seldom that any sharp line occurs where the 

 strictly mountain grasses begin and the lower valley grasses leave off. 

 The change is rather a gradual one. Hay meadows are almost entirely 



