22 FORAGE CONDITIONS AND PROBLEMS. 
ing the summer season. When not pastured too late in the spring, 
these were in good condition. Very often they appear overstocked, 
with the result that the weedy plants predominate to a remarkable 
degree. A collection of plants made in one of these mountain pastures 
in Camas Prairie will illustrate the effect of too close grazing, especially 
when the frost is going out of the ground in the spring. This was an 
open, rocky meadow, with stiff clay soil. There was here originally 
a good pasture of Sandberg’s bluegrass, bunch wheat grass, sheep 
fescue, Wheeler’s bluegrass, Nevada bluegrass, and prairie June grass. 
These are now very thin and scattering, having been trampled out to 
a large extent in late May and early June when no stock should have 
been allowed in the fields on account of their soft and miry condition. 
The following species were the abundant and conspicuous plants in the 
pasture: Yarrow (Achillea millefolium), black sunflower ( Wyethia 
amplexicaulis), arnica (Arnica alpina), erigeron (Lrigeron aphanactus), 
guillardia (Gadllardia aristata), balsam root (Balsamorrhiza ineana), 
lupine (Lupinus sulphureus), Clarkia pulchella, onion (Allium madi- 
dum), Navarretia brewert, phiox (Phlox gracilis), gilia (Gilias aggre- 
gata), eriogonum (friogonum heracloides), geum (Geum trifolium), 
Pentstemon attenuatus, Scrophularia orthocarpus, Deschampsia caly- 
cina, knotweed (Polygonum douglas), Lomatium leptocarpum, calo- 
chortus (Calochortus nuttalliz), and Sedum douglasii. Practically all 
of these were in bloom when the collections were made, and the field 
had the appearance of a flower garden rather than a pasture. 
A similar substitution of native plants of little or no forage value 
for the true grasses is common in the region, as well as in similarly 
treated areas in the more moist regions of Washington. Such substi 
tutions are usually more noticeable in humid mountain areas than on 
the lower deserts, for, in the latter, when the scattering bunches of 
grasses are killed out, there is often nothing to take their place. One 
of these overgrazed native pastures in the wheat region west of Ritz- 
ville, Wash., is shown in Plate LX, figure 1. For a list of the shrubs 
grazed by sheep the reader is referred to subsequent pages, which 
discuss the conditions in the Warner Mountains of California, and to 
Bulletin No. 15 of the Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Department 
of Agriculture. It may be stated that no black sage was seen in the 
Blue Mountains, except small patches of Artemisia arbuscula on the 
north slope, until Bear Valley, near the Great Basin drainage, was 
reached. 
As far as general vegetation is concerned the Warner Mountains of 
California do not differ materially from the Blue Mountains of Oregon; 
at least the main features are the same, and the general topographical 
features are very similar. The water supply, however, is much better 
in the mountains first mentioned. Indeed, it would be difficult to find 
an open range region where water is better distributed than in the 
