54 WESTERN GRAZING GROUNDS AND FOREST RANGES 



load in a very short time by this primitive and waste- 

 ful method. 



Where wagons could not work, burros and horses 

 were used, and the grass was packed on their backs. Not 

 infrequently the Mexicans and Indians brought the hay 

 in on their own backs tied up into great bundles with 

 soap weed strings (yucca.) I saw a Mexican or an 

 Apache Indian woman pack 150 pounds of this hay at the 

 scales, with her baby's basket on top of the load. The 

 hay was swung from her forehead by a flat strap fastened 

 to the soap weed strings. Under such methods of har- 

 vesting it is not singular that the black grama is an 

 almost extinct species at the present time, and I fancy 

 that it would take many days to find a ton of it now 

 where they formerly gathered it by the hundred tons. 



Sacaton. There are great areas along the rivers and 

 in the alkali lands which grow a fine crop of sacaton 

 (Sporobolus), sometimes, but erroneously called salt 

 grass. Sacaton (sac-ah-tone) starts very early in the 

 spring and while young is relished by all classes of stock. 

 It grows rapidly, however, and in six weeks becomes so 

 rank as to lose its good qualities. Its greatest value is 

 as an early grass for lambing or before other feed is up, 

 and it also makes fine hay when cut at the right period 

 of growth. 



Sacaton will stand an immense amount of hard usage 

 and it is almost impossible to injure it by either over- 

 grazing or trampling. I have seen a herd rounded up 

 on a sacaton flat for several days at a time, and milled 

 and worked over the ground until it was trampled into 

 a dust heap. As soon as the rains began, however, the 

 green shoots came up from the hardy roots and in a few 

 days there was apparently as good a stand as ever. The 



