34 FORAGE CONDITIONS AND PROBLEMS. 



Warner mountains, as well as in the Okanogan region and the irri- 

 gated communities of Ellensburg, North Yakima, and Lovelock. Nev. 

 It is a common practice in the irrigated localities, when alfalfa fields 

 have become thin owing to the length of their establishment, lack of 

 care, overirrigation, or accumulation of alkali, to sow barley or wheat, 

 cither in drills or broadcast, early in the spring. This answers sev- 

 eral beneficial purposes. The first crop of hay cut is greatly increased, 

 the fields are in much better tilth, and a more perfect soil cover is 

 secured early in the season, preventing a rapid evaporation from the 

 soil during the spring and consequently decreasing the soluble salt 

 content of the surface layers. It is said that this crop does not act 

 injuriously on the alfalfa. It is a common practice also to scatter 

 alfalfa seed in the meadows at the same time. This kind of a mixture 

 makes excellent hay. and nearly doubles the quantity secured at the 

 first cutting. 



CHEAT. 



Cheat" and grain (wheat, barley, and rye) are the main hay crops in 

 the Blue Mountains of Oregon. The majority of the ranchers spoken 

 with consider cheat superior to grain hay as feed for cattle and sheep. 

 A few fields were seen in Washington, but it is not by any means so 

 common there. It is not considered as good feed as timothy and red- 

 top, but it makes a better yield on higher and drier areas than these 

 crops. Nearly all ranchers in the Blue Mountains make a distinction 

 between cultivated cheat and what they call wild cheat, which is 

 described as the short-awned brome (Bromus inarginatus) in the 

 publications of the United States Department of Agriculture. 



BOOT CROPS. 



Some sheep men on the north slope of the Blue Mountains are 

 beginning to raise considerable quantities of mangel -wurzels, beets, 

 and carrots for the winter feeding of sheep. Messrs. J. E. Smith & 

 Sons, who have the largest sheep interests in this area, report good 

 success in their experiments in this direction. They are obliged at 

 the present time to feed their sheep thirty to fifty days, as compared 

 with ten days or two weeks years ago, when there was more open 

 range. Thus far they have produced crops of this nature for only a 

 limited number of their flocks, and these are fed mainly during 1 the 

 lambing season. The root-- are chopped with a machine and fed with 

 no further preparation. They consider these crops very profitable 

 for this purpose. It is quite probable that ruta-bagas could be profit- 

 ably added to this list. 



'' The species grown here appears t<> belong to Bromus racemosus rather than Bro- 

 mus secalinus, under which name it is handled by seedsmen. 



