INTRODUCTION 



One of the important natural assets of New Mexico 

 is the crop of forage which grows upon its unoccupied land 

 or open range. There is little doubt that improved methods 

 of cultivation and the discovery of water supplies not now 

 known to exist will ultimately increase the area of patented 

 and farmed lands in the State; but until that occurs the open 

 range will continue to bear a crop of forage the harvesting of 

 which by means of animals gives rise to a very important 

 industry. By far the larger number of wild plants that grow 

 on the open range form a part of that forage crop, be they 

 low herbaceous "weeds," grasses, sedges, or the smaller 

 shrubs. But considerably the most important groups are the 

 grasses, and the grass-like sedges and rushes which most 

 people think of as grasses. 



As has been indicated in a former bulletin* of this 

 Station, the most important species of forage grasses are 

 rather few in number and are associated together in pretty 

 well marked societies adapted to particular climatic condi- 

 tions. But tiiere is a large number of grasses and grass-like 

 plants growing on the open range, and the Station botanist 

 is being called upon continually for information concerning 

 them. Tlie people who are occupying the land are begin- 

 ning to be more anxious to know about the relative merits 

 of the different kinds and it becomes necessary to have some 

 names to call them by and some means of knowing that we 

 are all talking a1)<)ut the same thing when we use a given 

 name — a condition that does not now exist. Unfortunately 

 a difficulty arises at this point. Many of tlie grasses have 

 no common names of any kind. Some of them have two or 

 three for the same grass, the different names being used in 



* Bulletin No. 66, New Mexico -Agricultural Experiment Station. 

 The Range Problem in New Mexico. 



