44 | FORAGE CONDITIONS AND PROBLEMS. 
the form of Bromus secalinus which has escaped from cultivation and 
grows as a weed seems to be much more pronounced than that of the 
cultivated form, which, as previously stated, corresponds more closely 
to Bromus racemosus. 
Ustilago strieformis.—This common disease did more injury to 
timothy in Jess Valley, California, than the writer has ever observed 
elsewhere. It appeared to be confined here to well-drained areas, 
which were abundantly supplied by seepage from ditches, rather than 
to the more poorly drained or the drier portions of the meadows. 
SUMMARY AND SUGGESTIONS. %e 
NEEDS OF THE REGION. 
The sheep industry is more in need of summer pasture than anything 
else. This is accounted for by the settling up of mountain meadows, 
the development of alfalfa regions, and the withdrawal of land from 
the public domain for timber reserves. 
The mountain communities of the Blue and the Warner mountains 
need to have determined what hay and pasture crops can be grown in 
these highland regions to best advantage. 
~ In the desert basins, where water for irrigation can be obtained for 
only a very short time, there is need of an early maturing perennial 
orass. 
The alfalfa growers call for two new varieties of alfalfa—one which 
will survive with less water than the common form, and one which 
will resist the effect of soluble salts in the soil. The development of 
these two strains can be secured only through careful experimentation. 
ABUSES. 
The whole subject of abuses can be summed up under the head of 
overstocking, but there appear to be two practices which need special 
attention. At present stock are allowed on high mountain pastures 
too late in the spring. They should be taken from these pastures as 
soon as frost begins to disappear, so that the sod will not be injured. 
Even the carefully handled tame pastures of the East will not stand 
grazing at this period. 
The second abuse of the range to which the writer wishes to call 
attention is the ‘‘cayuse nuisance.” With the decline in the price of 
horses about 1894 these animals were allowed to run wild, with prac- 
tically no attention, many herds not even being rounded up and 
branded. Under these conditions, of course, the horses multiplied 
and deteriorated rapidly on account of inbreeding, resulting in the 
overstocking of the ranges with animals which were all but worthless. 
It was this condition which led the legislature of Nevada, in 1897, to 
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