26 STOCK RANGES OF NORTHWESTERN CALIFORNIA. 



One or other of these naturalized and somewhat weedy foreign spe- 

 cies forms the principal covering of every open range. The two first 

 named are the most common, but as a rule they are not found in 

 equal abundance on the same range; mile after mile is covered with 

 small barley grass which predominates, almost, but not entirely, to 

 the exclusion of rat-tail fescue ; over another area the case may be 

 exactly reversed, rat-tail fescue becoming the prevalent species. Both 

 are weedy grasses, only considered valuable when young and tender; 

 it is said that stock will not touch them after they "head out." Soft 

 chess is considered highly nutritious when the seeds are ripe, stock 

 eating the "heads" greedily; perhaps on this account it is less abun- 

 dant than either of the others. The intermittent occurrence of the 

 two first-named grasses may be due to their exotic origin, the species 

 first introduced onto a range becoming the prevalent one. The fact 

 that both are weedy grasses, and that neither one of them seems to 

 be better adapted to range conditions than the other, nor is eaten by 

 cattle after maturity, seems to indicate that in their case, at least, 

 absence from certain places is not due to selection. 



In addition to these three grasses the range feed is chiefly com- 

 posed of alfilerilla (mostly Erodiwm cicutarium, E. moscliatum being 

 rarely met with), wild clovers, the prevailing species of the latter 

 being Trifolium bifidum decipiens, T. microcephalum, and forms 

 of T. dichotomum. "Bear Clover" (T. furcatum virescens) is com- 

 mon in certain situations, especially in moist "slidy" clay soils, and 

 T. variegatum in moist, springy places. T. cyathiferam is only spar- 

 ingly met with. T. tridentatum is especially abundant on ungrazed 

 roadsides and ranges; its flowers have a pleasant, honey-like odor, 

 and are very attractive to bees. 



All of the above-named forage plants are shallow-rooted annuals, 

 ephemeral in character and entirely dependent upon the opportunity 

 to mature and scatter seed for the reproduction of their kind. Per- 

 ennial herbaceous plants are not at all common, except in occasional 

 and remote spots. The only perennial grasses noted on the dry, open 

 hillsides were: Lemmon's bunch grass (Stipa lemmoni), California 

 melic grass (Melica calif ornica), a variety of red fescue (Festucarubra 

 var.), a variety of sheep fescue (Festuca ovina var.), danthonia 

 (Danthonia calif ornica) , Sitanion villosum, Elymus angustifolius, 

 and one or two species of Poa. On some of the more closely grazed 

 ranges these perennial species are seldom seen, and occur in such 

 small quantities as to be noticeable by their scarcity. Their rarity 

 may be due to the fact that they are not, as a rule, turf-forming 

 species, but tufted grasses ("bunch-grasses"), and therefore poorly 

 adapted to withstand trampling and grazing by stock. Danthonia is 

 reported to have been much more plentiful in former years — in fact, 

 the most abundant forage plant, as it still is in some other parts of 

 the State — and it is said to have gradually succumbed to sheep graz- 



