42 FORAGE CONDITIONS AND PROBLEMS. 



properly handled in alfalfa culture. The weeds which thrive in alfalfa 

 are those which propagate by running- rootstocks. Two such grasses, 

 salt grass and wild wheat {Ely mux triticoides), are at times quite con- 

 spicuous and much dreaded in the Lovelock district. It is a very 

 common thing here to see patches of these two grasses, but more espe- 

 cially the former, making their appearance in alfalfa meadows and 

 spreading with surprising rapidity. The salt grass is by far the most 

 troublesome, because it finds in these soils congenial conditions, which 

 at the same time are detrimental to the crop. Through cultivation, 

 application of manure, and reseeding with alfalfa, or even a temporary 

 grain-hay crop, which gives a soil cover, this weed can be kept in check. 

 Although the salt grass is looked upon here as a weed, it would seem 

 that the real trouble is with the soil and not so much with the weedy 

 tendency of the grass. If the soluble salt content of the soil is kept 

 down by the methods already enumerated, salt grass will not find 

 congenial conditions. The difficultv seems to be simply one of alkali 

 and not of weeds. The wild wheat, or blue joint, on the other hand, 

 does not thrive in particularly alkaline soil, and is really a plant that 

 can be handled as easily as the western wheat grass {Agropyron occi- 

 dental^) on the prairies of the Great Plains. 



Blue flag {Iris mdssouriensis^ PI. X, fig. 2) is a very serious pest in 

 moist pastures. In portions of the Wen as Valley where pastures 

 were overstocked there was a complete soil cover of this weed in 

 many native meadows. In many places where it develops to this 

 extent it would be hazardous to break the soil, for fear that it might 

 be washed away. However, mowing would do much toward getting 

 rid of blue flag, and an attempt should be made at every favorable 

 opportunity to establish a more complete crop of timothy and redtop 

 in such localities. 



The dandelion is also a very serious pest in native meadows and 

 pastures which have been in use a long time in northwestern Nevada 

 and northeastern California. It has spread very rapidly of late in 

 many sections of the West where little or no cultivation is practiced. 

 It has been introduced doubtless with timothy and redtop, which are 

 largely employed throughout the region to supplement and supplant 

 the native vegetation. It is all the more serious because it is intro- 

 duced in places where, on account of the location of the arable land in 

 narrow strips along rivulets, its destruction by cultivation, which is 

 the only known method of eradicating it, is impracticable or, in 

 certain localities, hazardous, on account of danger of erosion when 

 the sod is broken up. 



The native plants which become weedy in the more humid localities 

 under conditions of overstocking have been discussed elsewhere. 



