49 FORAGE CONDITIONS AND PROBLEMS. 
properly handled in alfalfa culture. The weeds which thrive in alfalfa 
are those which propagate by running rootstocks. ‘Two such grasses, 
salt grass and wild wheat (Zlymus triticoides), are at times quite con- 
spicuous and much dreaded in the Lovelock district. It is a very 
common thing here to see patches of these two grasses, but more espe- 
cially the former, making their appearance in alfalfa meadows and 
spreading with surprising rapidity. The salt grass is by far the most 
troublesome, because it finds in these soils congenial conditions, which 
at the same time are detrimental to the crop. Through cultivation, 
application of manure, and reseeding with alfalfa, or even a temporary 
grain-hay crop, which gives a soil cover, this weed can be kept in check. 
Although the salt grass is looked upon here as a weed, it would seem 
that the real trouble is with the soil and not so much with the weedy 
tendency of the grass. If the soluble salt content of the soil is kept 
down by the methods already enumerated, salt grass will not find 
congenial conditions. The difficulty seems to be simply one of alkali 
and not of weeds. The wild wheat, or blue joint, on the other hand, 
does not thrive in particularly alkaline soil, and is really a plant that 
can be handled as easily as the western wheat grass (Agropyron occi- 
dentale) on the prairies of the Great Plains. 
Blue flag (ris missouriensis, Pl. X, fig. 2) is a very serious pest in 
moist pastures. In portions of the Wenas Valley where pastures 
were overstocked there was a complete soil cover of this weed in 
many native meadows. In many places where it develops to this 
extent it would be hazardous to break the soil, for fear that it might 
be washed away. However, mowing would do much toward getting 
rid of blue flag, and an attempt should be made at every favorable 
opportunity to establish a more complete crop of timothy and redtop 
in such localities. 
The dandelion is also a very serious pest in native meadows and 
pastures which have been in use a long time in northwestern Nevada 
and northeastern California. It has spread very rapidly of late in 
many sections of the West where little or no cultivation is practiced. 
It has been introduced doubtless with timothy and redtop, which are 
largely employed throughout the region to supplement and supplant 
the native vegetation. It is all the more serious because it 1s intro- 
duced in places where, on account of the location of the arable land in 
narrow strips along rivulets, its destruction by cultivation, which is 
the only known method of eradicating it, is impracticable or, in 
certain localities, hazardous, on account of danger of erosion when 
the sod is broken up. 
The native plants which become weedy in the more humid localities 
under conditions of overstocking have been discussed elsewhere. 
ee ee ee ee 
Oe ied OM 
es Mg ey Hangin. Oey See Grieg Vid 
ee a ae 
