UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



BULLETIN No. 545 



Joint Contribution from the Forest Service, HENRY S. 

 GRAVES, Forester, and the Bureau of Plant Industry, 

 WM. A. TAYLOR, Chief 



Washington, D. C. 



PROFESSIONAL PAPER. 



October 8, 1917 



IMPORTANT RANGE PLANTS: 

 THEIR LIFE HISTORY AND FORAGE VALUE. 



By ARTHUR W. SAMPSON, Plant Ecologist, Forest Service. 



CONTENTS. 



OBJECT OF THE STUDY. 



Although practically all types of grazing lands support a variety 

 of plant species, only a certain proportion of the grasses and of the 

 other plants are important from a grazing standpoint. Some species, 

 owing to their wide distribution and abundance, as well as to the 

 relish with which they are cropped, are valuable forage plants; 

 others because of certain chemical contents either during the entire 

 season or at some period of it are poisonous, and therefore seriously 

 objectionable on the range; while still others, either through some 

 peculiar physical structure or because they contain a superabundance 



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