40 FOKAGE CONDITIONS AND PROBLEMS. 



Several of these communities are developing the dairy industry 

 quite rapidly, and already Camas Prairie butter is of some importance 

 in the local markets. The necessity of good pastures and hay crops 

 for the proper development of this industry is obvious. 



While much has been done by the Department of Agriculture and 

 the State experiment stations in the development of the forage 

 resources of the West, very little attention has been given in this 

 country to experiments in this line in the mountains. The peculiar 

 conditions existing in these mountain settlements render the necessity 

 for new hay and pasture plants particularly pressing. In many local- 

 ities the ranchers and farmers are already experimenting on their own 

 account and will determine in time, by a laborious and expensive 

 process, what could very properly be determined at public expense. 

 The difficulties encountered by these farmers are enhanced by the 

 practice, common with certain seedsmen, of foisting upon the farmer, 

 under a new and frequently high-sounding name, some worthless 

 weed, or some plant of very limited usefulness. To illustrate: Some 

 people have invested considerable money in the seed of a supposedly 

 new forage crop under the name of '"Billion-dollar grass." and were 

 surprised when they were informed that it was an annual grass, and 

 much chagrined when they got no results on dry land without irriga- 

 tion, or when with irrigation on rich alluvial deposits they secured, 

 only a scattering growth of the common barnyard grass — a common 

 weed all over the United States. 



As stated elsewhere, grain, hay. and cheat are the main hay crops 

 in these mountain settlements at present. These certainly can be 

 improved upon. Some timothy and red top are grown, and awnless 

 brome is being gradually introduced. It appears to the writer that 

 some work of an experimental nature would be very desirable in these 

 mountain communities. A series of experiments conducted here for 

 about three years with a carefully selected list of about fifty foraare 

 plants would demonstrate what forage crops could be grown to advan- 

 tage at these high altitudes and would be of inestimable benefit to the 

 pioneers who are building homes here. 



In the numerous desert basins where water available for irrisration 

 can be secured for only a. short period, or, in other words, where the 

 meadows can be irrigated in late winter only and where now the sedges 

 and rushes are the main hay crops, the need of a perennial hay plant 

 that will mature early is evident. The native plant, bunch bluegrass 

 {Pod laevigata), seems the most promising for this purpose. As previ- 

 ously stated, this furnishes much hay at the present time and appears 

 well adapted to this form of treatment. The characteristics which make 

 this a valuable grass are discussed elsewhere and need not be repeated 

 here, it is possible that some annual crops might be found to be 

 profitable here, but it must be considered that the returns per acre, 



