42 FORAGE CONDITIONS ON NORTHERN BORDER OF GREAT BASIN. 



a suspicion that the condition of the animals acts as a very potent factor in causing 

 the numerous losses. 



Wild parsnip. — At least two plants designated by this common name are univer- 

 sally condemned. They are both very common in the lowland meadows and pas- 

 tures in both northern Nevada and southeastern Oregon. These are known to botan- 

 ists as Slum cicutifolium and Cicuta vagans. Large quantities were cut with hay at 

 Winnemucca and Quinn River Crossing, Nev., and on the White Horse Ranch, near 

 old Fort Smith, Oreg. No complaints are expressed against them in this condition. 

 Like the larkspur, they appear to be injurious in the spring when the ground is 

 moist and the cattle are able to pull up and eat the roots. In this instance again the 

 injury occurs at the time when the cattle are in an impoverished condition and 

 therefore least able to withstand the effects of any deleterious agents. Mr. Lusk 

 reports that his company has paid out considerable money in attempting to eradi- 

 cate this weed. It hires Indians or other cheap labor to dig up the plants in much 

 the same way that the dandelion and the thistle are removed from lawns in the East. 



FORAGE PLANTS. 



No attempt is made to give a complete list of the forage plants of 

 the region, even so far as observed on the trip. This would evidently 

 include all of the grasses, sedges, and rushes, and would unduly extend 

 the appended list to no purpose. Indeed, many of the plants collected 

 which are known to be eaten by stock are purposely omitted from the 

 list, either because they grow in quantities too small to be taken into 

 account, or because they are not considered of sufficient importance 

 to be noted. 



THE TRUE SAGES. 



The sages as popularly recognized constitute a very heterogeneous 

 group of plants. A rough classification is frequently made, however, 

 by the rancher into black sage and salt sage. The group included 

 under the above head constitutes those shrubby plants belonging to 

 the genus Artemisia, which bloom late in autumn and produce very 

 inconspicuous flowers and seeds which are very seldom seen by the 

 ordinary observer. They differ from the next group — the salt sages — 

 in having a very bitter taste and a very penetrating odor, like the 

 common wormwood to which they are closely related. They grow in 

 those situations which although arid are seldom alkaline. The abode 

 of the conspicuous and most valuable ones is therefore above the basins 

 and river bottoms, on the mesas and in the foothills. The different 

 species differ greatly in their forage value, depending presumably 

 upon the quantity of the bitter principle present in the leaves and 

 twigs. 



Black sage (Artemisia arbuscula). — This sagebrush is the typical mountain form 

 and differs mainly from the common black sage of the mesas (A. tridentata) in hav- 

 ing larger flowers and more spreading scraggly branches. What is said concerning 

 the feeding value of A. tridentata will apply with equal force to this species. Another 

 species, which is closely related to the above and which is very common on the mesas 



