THE RANGE. 27 



supply of moisture that the continued yield can be maintained. No 

 more convincing evidence of the deterioration of these meadows in 

 recent years was found on the whole trip than that furnished on the 

 Alder Creek ranch, at the base of Pine Forest Mountains. Here the 

 native hay meadow consists of an elongated, comparatively narrow 

 basin extending toward the desert from the mouth of a canyon leading 

 into the mountains. The remains of old stackyards were found for 5 

 or 6 miles down this meadow from the ranch. They were scattered at 

 short intervals. At one time these were built to surround stacks of 

 hay cut on these meadows, but they were all unused this year, except 

 those nearest the source of water supply from the canyon. 



The shortage of the native hay crop here is influenced largely by the 

 fact that the water has been used up in late years in the irrigation of 

 alfalfa, as well as by overstocking. This is an important factor in the 

 modification of the conditions on all of the native hay lands. The 

 water has been turned from its natural course, and, instead of irrigat- 

 ing the meadows as it once did, it is used to a large extent in the irri- 

 gation of the land which is situated just above and which naturally 

 produces nothing but black sage {Artemisia tridentata). The pack- 

 ing of the soil by the trampling of large numbers of cattle during 

 the fall and winter also has a very marked influence on the hay crop. 

 The soils are as a rule unusually hard and stiff, and this condition is 

 aggravated by the constant trampling of the cattle. One practice 

 decidedly beneficial is the feeding of the hay on the ground which 

 produces it. This results in returning the manure to the land and 

 compensates in a measure for the crop taken off. The fact that the 

 meadows have poor drainage serves to keep the refuse upon the land 

 where it will soak into the soil during the spring-flood season. 



The injury to the mesa from overstocking is largely local. The 

 shrubbery is usually not relished as much, and consequently is not 

 grazed as closely as the grasses. The most conspicuous desert shrub 

 is the black sage brush, which is not eaten except in extreme cases, 

 even by sheep. The spiny saltbush {Atriplex confertifolia) and hop 

 sage ( Grayia spinosa) usually bear evidence of browsing, but not to 

 any injurious extent. The greasewood which in localities is even 

 more conspicuous than the black sage is, as far as observed, never 

 injuriously grazed, the main use that stock make of it being that of 

 licking up the fallen leaves. This is true to some degree of the spiny 

 saltbush and the hop sage, but these are also browsed. The shrubby 

 mesa plants which have suffered most from overstocking are three in 

 number. The red sage {Kochia americana) appears to be always 

 closely cropped during the winter, although not eaten to any extent 

 during the summer. Bud sage {Artemisia spinescens) almost invariably 

 bears evidence of cropping, but it is probabh r eaten much more exten- 

 sively by sheep than by cattle. The value of white sage as food for 

 both cattle and sheep is well known and, as would be expected in a 



