148 FIELD AND GARDEN PRODUCTS 



in the number of wild clovers which occur there. California alone 

 has more than sixty species. Northern Sweet-weed (Hedysarum 

 boreale). A tall and leafy plant with racemes of yellow flowers; 

 it is found in open woodlands in the northern Rocky Mountains; 

 cattle are said to be quite fond of the forage. Nuttall's Salt Sage 

 (Atriplex nuttallii). Nuttall's salt sage is the most common salt 

 sage of the plains of northern Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and 

 northern Nevada, and is considered by stockmen the most valuable 

 of that region. It is a low, leafy shrub seldom more than 2 or 3 

 feet high, and, like the shad scale, is perennial. It grows where the 

 soil is dry and so strongly impregnated with alkali that little else 

 will thrive except rabbit brush and bitter sages. It is one of 

 the best of the wild forage plants for winter pasturage. Nelson 

 states that the leaves and young twigs, and especially the 

 seeds, are very fattening, and that sheep eat the forage both 

 green and when it has cured upon the ground. The plant endures 

 much severe trampling and hard usage. 



Old-man Saltbush (Rhagpdia parabolica). A low, spreading, 

 perennial shrub, seldom growing more than 3 to 5 feet high. Its 

 leaves and branches are whitish. Cattle and sheep graze this plant 

 wherever found and is said to be one of the most drought resistant 

 of all the saltbushes. It will stand some frost, and would be a good 

 plant to introduce on the cattle ranges of Texas and New Mexico. 

 Like all others of this group, it not only produces an abundance of 

 seed, but may readily be reproduced from cuttings. One-flowered 

 Vetch (Vicia monantha}. An annual vetch which supplies forage 

 of good Duality on poor, sandy, or granitic soils; the seeds are eaten 

 like lentils; it is a good winter crop for the South. Oregon Vetch 

 (Lathyrus oregonensis) . This and a number of other species grow 

 in fire glades in the lodgepole pine forests of Oregon ; all are readily 

 eaten by sheep and are excellent fatteners. 



Peppergrass (Lepidium lasiocarpum) . An annual weed with 

 hairy stems and rough finely-cut leaves, occurring in the arid South- 

 west; sheep are very fond of it. Pigweed (Amaranthus retroflexus) . 

 This annual weed is common in gardens and cornfields in the 

 West. Sheep and cattle relish it, and it often makes valuable feed 

 in midsummer when pastures are dried up, or in the cornfields after 

 the fodder has been cut and the corn husked. It is quite resistant to 

 both alkali and drought. While it is often a decided nuisance in cul- 

 tivated land, this plant is esteemed a good forage plant by stock- 

 men wherever it occurs on the ranges. It is becoming a common 

 practice in the prairie States to run sheep in the cornfields from 

 about the time the grain is in the milk and the corn and the corn 

 has grown to its full height. The sheep clean out the pigweed, pur- 

 slane, and weedy grasses, and browse the fallen corn blades. The 

 weeds of the cornfields thus supply succulent forage at a time when 

 pastures are dead and brown. Pine Grass (Carex pennsylvanica) . 

 A perennial, turf-forming sedge in the lodge-pole pine forests 

 of Oregon, and wooded areas eastward to the Atlantic; it supplies 

 some grazing for sheep when it first comes up in spring. Prairie 



