158 FIELD AND GARDEN PRODUCTS 



by cattle before it has become woody. Because of the tumbling of 

 the plants in autumn when they are broken off at the surface of the 

 ground, the seeds are widely scattered by the winds. Tumbling Salt 

 Sage (Atriplex volutan*) A rank, leafy annual, which forms an 

 upright compact mass 2 or 3 feet high. Nelson says that it may 

 prove more valuable for certain alkali soils than any of the foreign 

 species. It produces an abundance of seeds. Tumbling salt sage gets 

 its name from the fact that, like a great many other plants native 

 to the Western plains and prairies, the stem breaks off close above the 

 ground in autumn, and the plant goes rolling across the country, 

 scattering its seeds at every bound. It might prove a bad weed in 

 grain fields because of this tumbling habit. It has very little forage 

 value after the seeds have fallen. Tufted Spikerush (Eleocharis 

 obtusa) A tufted annual spikerush grows in shallow ponds and 

 marshes in the Upper Missouri region, supplying a fair quality of 

 forage in localities too wet for grasses and sedges. Tule (Cyperus 

 strigosus) A tall sedge growing in marshy places in California and 

 Arizona. It is much relished when young by all kinds of stock. 



Upright Knot Tanweed (Polygonum emersum) . This is well 

 regarded as a forage plant for wet meadows and marshy places. It is 

 abundant throughout the United States, and is one of the species 

 which would not become a weed if brought under cultivation. Cattle 

 are very fond of it. There are numerous other species of knotweed 

 which in the localities where they grow add materially to the value 

 of pasturage. Upright Sedge (Carex strictd) A slender, tufted, per- 

 ennial sedge, forming large bunches, common in low, wet meadows 

 and along the margins of ponds and lakes throughout the prairie 

 region. The hay contains 11 per cent of crude protein. Utah 

 -Saltbush (Atriplex truncata) Utah saltbush is one of the best of 

 the annual species. It is common in northern Utah and Nevada 

 and eastern Oregon on clayey soils impregnated with common salt 

 and white alkali. A few seeds were distributed in 1896 by the 

 Division of Agrostology, and a number of those who grew it have 

 reported it as being of much promise for the reclamation of alkali 

 soils. It is closely grazed by cattle wherever they have access to it, 

 so that it is hard to find in sufficient amount to supply any quantity 

 of seed. It is never abundant except where undergrazed or protected 

 by fences. 



Water Grass (Carex muricata) A sedge, native of Arizona and 

 New Mexico; very abundant in low places on the mesas. It con- 

 tributes a large part of the hay cut from wet meadows, and is relished 

 by stock. Winter Fat (Eurotia lanata) A white-hairy perennial, 

 1 to 2 feet high, closely related to the saltbushes, and growing with 

 them on strongly alkaline soils. The cottony seeds are produced 

 in great abundance, and both seeds and stems are eaten greedily by 

 all grazing animals, so that this plant is now almost exterminated 

 wherever cattle have free range. It is widely distributed from Mani- 

 toba to Texas and westward to the Sierra Nevadas, and wherever it 

 occurs is highly spoken of as a winter forage plant. Winter Purslane 

 (Veronica peregrina) This insignificant annual appears in such 



