36 FORAGE CONDITIONS AND PROBLEMS. 
fairly good hay, but if left standing longer than this it becomes very 
hard and woody. 
Sprangle top (Scolochloa festucacea).—As stated in bet year’s report, 
the importance of this plant asa forage crop is surprising. Its dis- 
tribution appears to be very local. The only place in this region 
where the writer has seen the plant is in Harney Valley, and there 
only in the vicinity of Malheur Lake, where it was fully reported upon 
last vear, and along the Dunder and Blitzen River, where it was just 
as Important as on the islands of Silvies River. Large quantities of 
hay were made of it this year on some of the ** P” ranches. 
Miscellaneous forage plants.—A very large part of the native hay 
throughout this region is obtained from the sedges and rushes, mixed 
with more or less of the native clovers, of which Zrifolium involuera- 
tum and 7. microcephalum are the most important on the lower areas 
and 7. beckwithii in the mountains. Trifolium cyathiferum should 
also be mentioned as being of much value. Of the sedges, Carex 
utriculata, C. lanuginosa, C. tenella, C. nebraskensis, and C. douglasii 
provide the greatest quantity of feed and are of importance in the 
order named. ‘They produce hay of less value than the grasses and 
clovers, but are much superior to the rushes, which are represented 
mainly by Juncus balticus, Hleocharis palustris, Scirpus canpestris, 
S. americanus, and the tule (S. dacustris). Mention has been made of 
the extraordinary area of /leocharis palustris in the Grand Coulee. 
Another equally striking illustration of the development of the /uneus 
balticus, also known as wire grass, came under observation along Crab 
Creek in Washington. Here it has been the practice for years to 
flood the meadows for a month or two after the hay crop has been 
removed for the purpose of attracting wild ducks, which are fed and 
systematically hunted during the open season, with the result that the 
meadows have grown up to aimost pure Juncus balticus. This species 
almost invariably occurred in greater or less quantity in all meadows 
where timothy and redtop have been established without cultivation, 
more especially where the water is not under good control and is 
allowed to remain on the ground for long periods. 
RECLAMATION OF SWAMP LANDS. 
There were two regions on the route followed where gigantic opera- 
tions were in progress for the drainage of swamp lands along streams 
which have a slight fall and are without any defined channels. The 
undertaking which came under direct observation was that inaugurated 
and carried on by the French-Glenn Live Stock Company along the 
Dunder and Blitzen River in eastern Oregon. This stream receives the 
drainage of a large portion of the western slope of Steins Mountains 
