31 



substitute it for the sedges aud rusbes in tlie meadows of tbe 

 Laramie river would be tbe part of wisdoni. With this aud the 

 tall I'eed ]\Ieadow grass the wettest ground could be utilized. 

 (6j The Sedges [Care.r). — Of this genus the region affords a very- 

 large number of species. They are of varying- abundance and 

 value, but it is hard to select, even after observation in the field, 

 the most profitable. Many of them are cut for hay and certainly 

 have nutritive value, but they are hardly to be compared to the 

 better grasses. In nniny fields, however, they have almost re- 

 jjlaced the grasses owing to over irrigation. The senseless manner 

 in which the water is applied to some of the grass lands must be 

 attributed either to ignorance or indifference. Early in the spring, 

 while the ground is still wet aud cold, the lauds are submerged 

 and kept in that condition through the season, and are only drained 

 in order that the mowing machines may be taken into the fields. 

 A few seasons of this kind of treatment gives the land over to 

 sedges and rushes and makes it reclaimable with the greatest dif- 

 ficulty. For lands that are natnrally wet some species of Carex 

 may be found better adapted than the true grasses, at least in cer- 

 tain kinds of soil. Among those that are peculiarly adapted for 

 hay purposes may be named Carex athrostachya Olney, C. /estiva 

 stricta Bailey, G. lanuginosa Michx., (7. marcida I5oott, C. nehras- 

 Jcensis Dewey, C. trichocarpa aristata Bailey, and C. utriculata 

 minor Boott. The dense growth of leaves in C. hinug'Diosa and 

 C. trichocarpa aristata makes them particularly desirable for hay. 

 The latter yields enormously in some of the fields on the Laramie 

 bottoms. For a pasture sedge there is nothing to compare with 

 Carex media, dejiexa Bailey. It belongs in the mountains, in the 

 open parks, and on the ridges at 9,000 feet and upward. In such 

 places it forms close mats several feet across, and these in places 

 almost touching each other. It grows to only a few inches in 

 height, bnt produces an abundance of leaves and fruited stems 

 that are much sought after by stock of all kinds. Where it is 

 accessible to stock it is hard to find matured, or fruited, speci- 

 meus. There are forage ])lants of more or less value among the 

 rushes, the legumes, and in a few other groups, but these Avill be 

 noticed in their order in the systematic list. 



LIST OF THE FORAGE PLANTS OF THE SUMMER RANGE. 



The following grasses and forage plants were collected on the sum- 

 mer range (the hill country bordering the desert) during the season of 



1897: 



GRASSES. 



Pauicum virgatum L. (Switch-grass, fig. 3).— A grass with rather rigid, waud-like, 

 few-leafetl stems, 20 to 30 inches high, the fruiting pedicels slender, spreading, 

 the spikes (if few luit lariie seeds. Probalily rare in the State, as it has been 

 secured only near the .Nebraska border. IMue Bluffs, July 6 (362G). 



