MEADOWS AND HAY CROPS. 35 



NATIVE HAY CROPS. 



Wild wheat (Elymvs triticoides). — This is without doubt the most 

 important native hay plant of the region. It is known locally as blue- 

 joint. Attention was called to this crop last year, but its importance 

 was still more impressed upon the writer this year. In early days this 

 was the main hay crop in the vicinity of Lovelock, and the name "Bib 

 Meadows" is said to have originated from the extensive ureas of hay 

 land along the lower course of the Humboldt River where this was 

 the principal species. Wild wheat was not met with on our route in 

 any great quantities until we approached the Great Basin slope of the 

 Blue Mountains, except in one locality on the Okanogan bottoms, 

 where there was a large area of the white, or densely glaucous, form, 

 which was so abundant at Quinn River Crossing, near Winnemucca, 

 last year. At Izee, on the South Fork of the John Day River, it 

 appeared to be of considerable importance in both hay and pasture 

 land. Its best development, however, appears to be in the stiff, 

 rather poorly drained, heavy, nonalkaline soils of the Great Basin bot- 

 toms. Here it grows out to the edges of the sagebrush areas, and 

 often occurs in small quantities scattered for some distance into these 

 areas, so that when they are irrigated, as is often the case, this grass 

 springs up and extends with surprising rapidity, being spread, doubt- 

 less, to some extent by seeds, but more especially by its creeping root- 

 stocks. 



In the Lovelock region at the present time it is considered a weed, 

 on account of the persistence with which it remains and spreads in 

 cultivated fields. When lands are being brought under control it is 

 very common to hud areas of this grass scattered through the fields for 

 some time, and it is almost invariably found along the irrigation 

 ditches, where it serves the useful purpose of holding the embankments. 

 Bunch Uuegrass {Poa laevigata).— Next in importance to the wild 

 wheat is the bunch bluegrass, which is sometimes known as wild red- 

 top. In the desert basins thousands of tons of this hay are cut each 

 year. It grows in somewhat similar situations to the wild wheat, 

 though usually on higher ground, and it appears to be able to with- 

 stand a greater amount of drought. Its habit of early maturing renders 

 it of extreme importance in the Great Basin region. Often the only 

 moisture which meadows obtain is from spring flooding, and this plant 

 appears to be able to mature a fairly good crop of hay under these 

 conditions. The most extensive areas of this grass were seen in the 

 Catlow and Guano valleys and in the Deep Hole region on the edge of 

 the Smoke Creek desert. 



Giant rye grass (Elymus condenx<it<i»).—ln all localities visited this 

 is an important forage grass, but it is in the Great Basin that it attains 

 its greatest importance as a hay crop. If cut when in bloom it makes 



