36 FORAGE CONDITIONS AND PROBLEMS. 



fairly good hay, but if left standing longer than this it becomes very 

 hard and woody. 



Sprangle top {Scolochloa festucacea).— As stated in last year's report, 

 the importance of this plant as a forage crop is surprising. Its dis- 

 tribution appears to be very local. The only place in this region 

 where the writer has seen the plant is in Harney Valley, and there 

 only in the vicinity of Malheur Lake, where it was fully reported upon 

 last year, and along the Dunder and Blitzen River, where it was just 

 as important as on the islands of Silvies River. Large quantities of 

 hay were made of it this year on some of the " P" ranches. 



Miscellaneous forage plants.— A very large part of the native hay 

 throughout this region is obtained from the sedges and rushes, mixed 

 with more or less of the native clovers, of which Trifolium involuera- 

 tum and T. microcephalia are the most important on the lower areas 

 and T. oechwithii in the mountains. Trifolium cyathiferum should 

 also be mentioned as being of much value. Of the sedges, Carex 

 utriciclata, C. lanuginosa, C. tenella, ('. nebraskmsis, and C. douglasii 

 provide the greatest quantity of feed and are of importance in the 

 order named. They produce hay of less value than the grasses and 

 clovers, but are much superior to the rushes, which are represented 

 mainly by Juncus balticus, Eleocharis palustris, Scirpus campestris, 

 S. americanus, and the tule (S. lacusiris). Mention has been made of 

 the extraordinary area of Eleocharis palustris in the Grand Coulee. 

 Another equally striking illustration of the development of the Juncus 

 balticus, also known as wire grass, came under observation along Crab 

 Creek in Washington. Here it has been the practice for } T ears to 

 flood the meadows for a month or two after the hay crop has been 

 removed for the purpose of attracting wild ducks, which are fed and 

 systematically hunted during the open season, with the result that the 

 meadows have grown up to almost \)\xre Juncus Initials. This species 

 almost invariably occurred in greater or less quantity in all meadows 

 where timothy and redtop have been established without cultivation, 

 more especially where the water is not under good control and is 

 allowed to remain on the ground for long periods. 



RECLAMATION OF SWAMP LANDS. 



There were two regions on the route followed where gigantic opera- 

 tions were in progress for the drainage of swamp lands along streams 

 which have a slight fall and are without any defined channels. The 

 undertaking which came under direct observation was that inaugurated 

 and carried on by the French-Glenn Live Stock Company along the 

 Dunder and Blitzen River in eastern Oregon. This stream receives the 

 drainage of a large portion of the western slope of Steins Mountains 



