Plants Used by Sheep on Mountain Range. 9 



thimble berry, Rubus parviflorus Nutt. The ground beneath the bushes 

 is covered with such plants as the dogwood, Cornus canadensis L., 

 meadow rue, Thalictrum occidentale Gray, Clintonia uniflora (Schult.) 

 Kunth., false miterwort, Tiarella unifoliata Hook., false Solomon's seal, 

 Vagnera sessilifolia (Baker) Greene, and the twin flower, Linnaea 

 amerlcana Forbes. 



THE MEADOWS. 



Coming out of the woods into the meadows, we meet with very 

 different conditions. While the woods are cool and moist, in August, 

 the meadows are hot and dry and the ground is baked hard. Most of 

 the meadows are under cultivation and are producing large crops of tim- 

 othy. A few of them are growing oats. These are cut in the milk for 

 hay. Around the edges of the cultivated meadows and all over some 

 small uncultivated ones, the native vegetation still exists. Wherever it 

 is dry enough in winter for the trees and shrubs to encroach, we find a 

 few spruces, Picea engelmanni Parry, white firs and the coral berry. 

 The open meadow is covered with a dense growth from three to five 

 feet high of such plants as yarrow, Achillea millefolium var. lanulosa 

 (Nutt.) Piper, aster, Aster hendersoni, fescue, Festuca sublata 

 Trin., aconite, Aconitum columbianum Nutt., false bugbane, Trautvel- 

 teria grandis Nutt., golden rod, Solidago elongata Nutt., and cinque- 

 foil, Potentilla nuttallii Lehm. or a related species. 



THE BUNCH-GRASS HILLS. 



The bunch-grass hills which form the fourth vegetative region in- 

 volved in the feeding of the bands of sheep which are herein considered, 

 lie between the sage-brush plains and the yellow pine forests. They 

 form the region called by plant geographers the lower Arid Transition 

 region. These hills are almost entirely under cultivation. The land is 

 all fenced and is to a very large extent raising wheat. The native vege- 

 tation which once covered the hills consisted largely of bunch-grass, 

 Agropyron spicatum (Pursh) Scribn. & Smith, mixed with numerous 

 prairie herbs. Except along streams in the valleys or on very steep north 

 hillsides there were no trees and shrubs. The native vegetation is now 

 so scarce that it does not enter as a factor into sheep grazing. The wheat 

 raised on these hills ripens in July and August and between the fifteenth 

 of July and the first of October is harvested. It is cut with a binder and 

 shocked or else cut with a header, but in any case is threshed direct from 

 the field without stacking before the winter rains come, which usually 

 begin between September fifteenth and October first. The stubble 

 fields filled with straw, shattered grain, wild oats, Avena fatua glabrata 

 Petermann, and sprouting weeds are thus available for the feeding of 

 sheep in October and November. 



