INJURIOUS PLANTS AND WEEDS. 41 
which are very small, make the profits from the cultivation of large 
areas for annual crops rather problematical. 
In practically all of the irrigated districts where alfalfa is raised the 
settlers were nearly all looking for some strain of alfalfa which will 
thrive with less water than the common stock. ,.The introduction of 
Turkestan seed a few years ago having resulted indifferently, attention 
has recently been attracted to °‘ dry-land” alfalfa, concerning which 
much has appeared in periodicals during the past year. The growing 
tendency in all the irrigated districts to bring more land under culti- 
vation than can be properly irrigated has emphasized the demand for 
a crop that may be grown with little or no irrigation in arid climates. 
Correlated with a scarcity of water is the accumulation of alkali, which 
calls for the development of strains resistant thereto. 
The matters just mentioned, together with the determination of the 
best method of handling the swamp lands and the best hay crops to 
grow upon them, appear to be the most important forage problems 
of the region. 
PLANTS INJURIOUS TO STOCK. 
But little can be added to what was said last year regarding poison- 
ous plants in pastures and meadows. In all swampy places, especially 
in the vicinity of springs, there occur more or less wild parsnips 
(Cicuta vagans). This and larkspur (Pelphinium scopulorum) are 
dreaded by ranchers in the spring of the year, especially in the Great 
Basin region. 
The slender fescues (Festuca microstachya and F. octoflora) are said 
to cause injury about the time that the seed is ripening. The injury 
is done by the seed working its way into the walls of the animal’s 
stomach. This is reported on what is, without doubt, reliable testi- 
mony from two observers, both of whom were in position to form 
opinions from post-mortem examinations. Mechanical injuries of this 
nature are not at all uncommon, the best-known examples being those 
caused by squirrel-tail grass (Hordeum jubatum), the awns of which 
work their way into the lining membranes of the mouth, and needle 
grass (Stipa spp.), the seed and awns of which work their way into 
the wool and flesh of the sheep. To these might be added the triple- 
awned grass (Aristida americana) and six weeks’ grass (Bouteloua 
aristoides) of the Southwest, which are dangerous to sheep at certain 
seasons, the awned seeds in the first instance and the spikelets in the 
second case acting in the same way as the seed of the needle grasses. 
WEEDS OF MEADOWS AND PASTURES. 
The ordinary annual weeds of the farm can not combat with alfalfa 
as handled in the irrigated West. Wild lettuce, which is a serious 
pest in parts of the wheat region, soon disappears from the field when 
