THE SAGE PLAINS OF OREGON 
403 
known as Kafir corn. This has been found to flourish under 
conditions too arid for Indian corn, to produce heavy crops, and 
to have about the same nutritive qualities as that product for 
feeding farm stock of all kinds or for human food. There is a 
great subarid belt in that region in which Kafir corn has now 
become the staple crop, and while there is no great demand for 
it in the markets of the world, and it is not, therefore, directly 
convertible into money, yet, when transformed into ])ork, beef, or 
draft animals, it brings quite as good a price as Indian corn. 
Though this particular crop is probably not suited to the plains 
of Oregon, it suggests strongly that there may be equally valuable 
plants well adapted to that region. The observations we have 
just made on the native plants demonstrate the fact that there 
are man}^ food-producing species which stand the climate well, 
and there is a reasonable probability that some of them might 
b}^ careful cultivation and selection be turned into useful agri- 
cultural products. The bringing about of such a result, how- 
ever, can be the outcome only of long and laborious experimen- 
tation and it offers no immediate solution of the present })roblem. 
There is one phase of wastefulness of the natural resources of 
the United States which a trip across the plains of Oregon par- 
ticularly impresses upon the traveler, namely, the careless de- 
struction of our great natural wealth of forage. It is doubtless 
to this that the local aggravation of the present agricultural 
depression is in some parts of the country due. After an edu- 
cational campaign of twenty years the government has recently 
a[)[)ointed a commission to report a practical jilan of dealing with 
the forestry problem of the United States. From the condition 
of our great grazing areas in the west it seems ])robable that the 
time will come wben a similar poimlar demand will be made 
uijon the government for some means of preventing the ex- 
haustion of the forage supply on the ])ublic lands. Continued 
over-grazing year after year, if sufliciently excessive, unquestion- 
ably kills out the native forage plants, Avhich are then replaced 
largely by introduced weeds. The original nutritious grasses 
never regain their former luxuriance and sometimes are almost 
exterminated. Under moderate grazing the native species pi’o- 
duee yearly a good crop, or if even slightly over-grazed will 
after a few years of rest regain their former abundance. 
Only a comparative!}' small percentage of the ari<l grazing 
lands of the west are under private ownership. Most of the 
