38 WESTERN GRAZING GROUNDS AND FOREST RANGES 



little competition from other sources and generally bring 

 the top prices. Some have made fortunes for their 

 owners. 



Grasses and Forage of the Southern Range. There 

 are two distinct types of range in both these great di- 

 visions of the West. While the greater part of the south- 

 ern range is what is known as desert range, there is also 

 an area of country classed as mountain range. This 

 latter forms probably one-fifth of the total available 

 range. 



On the desert ranges, which lie at lower altitudes, 

 we have a great variety of stock forage with compara- 

 tively little grass. A typical desert range is the great 

 stretch of country in southern Arizona lying in the foot- 

 hills of the Salt and Gila Valleys. This range is gen- 

 erally all below an elevation of 3,000 feet and lies in the 

 region of long hot summers and cool pleasant winters. 

 To the uninitiated there seems to be but little feed for 

 stock but, given the usual summer rains, which should 

 begin in early July, the stockman knows his herds will 

 not suffer for feed. With the summer rains come a rapid 

 growth of weeds, brush and other forage plants upon 

 which the stock thrive. 



Mesquite beans (Prosopis) furnish feed of a high 

 nutritive value, and it is a strange sight to see the cat- 

 tle and horses eating the long yellow pods, often get- 

 ting down on their knees to reach the beans lying all 

 over the ground under the low-hanging boughs of the 

 trees. Under ordinary climatic conditions there are 

 two crops a year of mesquite beans, the pods of which 

 are rich in nitrogen. The Indians in this region grind 

 the beans into flour from which they make bread. 



Then there are many families of sage, which all stock 



