FORAGE PLANTS. 47 



considerable, but the quality is very poor. The seeds are nutritious, and one may 

 often see horses in the tule patches in late summer picking off the heads. 



Prairie bulrush (Scirpus campestris). — A brown-headed, triangular-stemmed, 

 large, coarse, grass-like plant, growing in low, wet, and often alkaline meadows. 

 The quantity of forage yielded by it is very large, and the quality, while not as 

 good as that furnished by the grasses, is still very fair. Closely related species furnish 

 large quantities of hay in many localities on lake and river bottoms in the Dakotas. 

 In the vicinity of Divine's ranch, at the edge of the Alvord Desert, there was a very 

 fine growth of this rush. PL. VII, fig. 1, shows a very ordinary development of it, 

 and also something regarding the character of the soil on which it grows. This par- 

 ticular spot would cut one and three-fourths to two tons per acre. In some places 

 in this vicinity hay consisting of about two-thirds of this rush and one-third tule 

 was cut in large quantities. The yield was often three tons per acre of very bulky 

 forage. 



Small-seeded bulrush (Scirpus microcarpus) . — This is frequently found in large 

 quantities in low, wet, nonalkaline areas. It is never in such quantities nor in such 

 situations that it can be cut for hay, but it forms much of both winter and summer 

 pasturage. It was first met with in the vicinity of Pine Forest Mountains, and fre- 

 quently from there north. 



Three-square (Scirpus pungens). — A triangular stemmed plant, with a small lateral 

 head and few leaves, growing thinly, and propagating by creeping root stocks in wet 

 and often alkaline localities. The same species is very commonly found in consid- 

 erable quantities in the hay meadows in Wyoming, Montana, and the Dakotas. It 

 is cut and pastured, but it makes a quality of feed but little better than the tule. 



, Awned sedge (Carex aristata). — This sedge furnished a great deal of pasturage and 

 feed on the Malheur Lake bottoms. It grows in rich, moist, nonalkaline areas to the 

 extent of one and a half to two tons per acre. Where we saw it the individual areas 

 in which it grew were not large, but frequent, and measured from one-fourth to three 

 or four acres. It furnishes by far the best and largest quantity of hay of any of the 

 sedges in this region. 



Douglas sedge (Carex douglasii). — This conspicuous, yellow-headed, wiry plant 

 is probably the most common of all the species of the sedge family. It is invariably 

 found on the drier bottoms, where it grows oftentimes to a height of 8 inches. Much 

 of it, therefore, gets into the haystack, where it is readily eaten in winter, although 

 it is very tough and wiry. On the open range it is always closely grazed. Its main 

 value is for pasture. 



Gay's sedge (Carex gayana). — This often forms from one-fourth to one-third of 

 the hay in some localities. It was decidedly abundant in the vicinity of the Alvoid 

 Desert, where, together with the Nebraska sedge and seaside clover, it yielded about 

 one and a half tons per acre. Nowhere else was it found in such abundance. 



Woolly sedge ( Carex lanuginosa). — Commonly found mixed with the tule, but it 

 thrives best in soils immediately surrounding the latter. It very often grows in 

 situations too wet to be cut, but even here it furnishes feed for winter pasture. On 

 the lower wet meadows on the Divine Ranch it formed about two-thirds of the crop 

 over very large areas, the remainder being furnished by the Nebraska sedge and the 

 seaside clover. It is also an important factor in the hay supply on both the Quinn 

 River Crossing and White Horse ranches. 



Clustered field sedge (Carex marcida). — Two varieties of this species are com- 

 mon in northern Nevada and southern Oregon. They are never abundant enough 

 to form any great amount of hay in any one place, but in the aggregate, over large 

 areas of the drier meadows, they amount to a great deal. When the drier meadows 

 are too short to cut it is pastured in the winter with other sedges and grasses. 



Nebraska sedge ( Carex nebraskensis) . — A very valuable pale-green species growing 



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