INJURIOUS PLANTS AND WEEDS. 41 



which are very small, make the profits from the cultivation of large 

 areas for annual crops rather problematical. 



In practically all of the irrigated districts where alfalfa i- raised the 

 settlers were nearly all looking for some strain of alfalfa which will 

 thrive with less water than the common stock. The introduction of 

 Turkestan seed a few years ago having resulted indifferently, attention 

 has recently been attracted to "dry-land" alfalfa, concerning which 

 much has appeared in periodicals during the past year. The growing 

 tendency in all the irrigated districts to bring more land under culti- 

 vation than can be properly irrigated has emphasized the demand for 

 a crop that may be grown with little or no irrigation in arid climate-. 

 Correlated with a scarcity of water is the accumulation of alkali, which 

 calls for the development of strains resistant thereto. 



The matters just mentioned, together with the determination of the 

 best method of handling the swamp lands and the best hay crops to 

 grow upon them, appear to be the most important forage problems 

 of the region. 



PLANTS INJURIOUS TO STOCK. 



But little can be added t<> what was said hist year regarding poison- 

 ous plants in pastures and meadows. In all swampy places, especially 

 in the vicinity of springs, there occur more or less wild parsnips 

 [Cictda vagans). This and larkspur {Delphinium scopulorum) are 

 dreaded by ranchers in the spring of the year, especially in the Great 

 Basin region. 



The slender fescues (Festuca microstachya and F. octqfiora) arc said 

 to cause injury about the time that the seed is ripening. The injury 

 is done by the seed working its way into the walls of the animal's 

 stomach. This is reported on what is, without doubt, reliable testi- 

 mony from two observers, both of whom were in position to form 

 opinions from post-mortem examinations. Mechanical injuries of this 

 nature are not at all uncommon, the best-known examples being those 

 caused by squirrel-tail grass {Hordeum jubatwn), the awns of which 

 work their way into the lining membranes of the mouth, and needle 

 grass (Stipa spp.), the seed and awns of which work their way into 

 the wool and flesh of the sheep. To these might be added the triple- 

 awned grass (Aristida americana) and six weeks' grass {Bouteloua 

 aristoides) of the Southwest, which are dangerous to sheep at certain 

 seasons, the awned seeds in the first instance and the spikelets in the 

 second case acting in the same way as the seed of the needle grasses. 



WEEDS OF MEADOWS AND PASTURES. 



The ordinary annual weeds of the farm can not combat with alfalfa 

 as handled in the irrigated West. Wild lettuce, which is a serious 

 pest in parts of the wheat region, soon disappears from the field when 



