28 MISC. PUBLICATION 101, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 
saltbushes in the regions in which the sheep are grazed, and he 
cites other authority to the effect that if the saltbushes were en- 
tirely exterminated the value of the wool would tend to decrease. 
Fourwing saltbush (Atriplex canescens) (fig. 3) is a freely 
branching shrub, occasionally 6 to 10 feet high but usually lower, 
with grayish-white stems and leaves and rigid twigs. It is one of 
the most widely distributed west-American species of its genus, 
being fairly common to common from South Dakota to western 
Texas, California, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming. 
This species has in the past been fairly generally known by the 
name “shadscale.” Historically, however, shadscale pertains to 
A. confertifolia (p. 30) and the name is also picturesquely descrip- 
tive of the flattened, concentrically ringed fruits of that species and 
not at all appropriate to the winged fruits of A. canescens. Other 
names in more or less common use are chamiza (New Mexico), 
cenizo (78), buckwheat shrub, bushy atriplex, salt sage, wafer sage 
(brush), and (white) greasewood. 
Fourwing saltbush is characteristic of dry, moderately saline or 
alkaline situations in the plains and foothill regions and not in- 
frequently is the dominant species over extensive areas. It will 
grow on lands heavily impregnated with white alkali and also 
withstands small amounts of black alkali. 
Numerous chemical analyses and seeding and feeding tests have 
been conducted with fourwing saltbush, and a myriad of notations 
have been published or written relating to its forage value. It is 
unquestionably one of the more important arid-site shrubs, espe- 
cially in the Southwest and Great Basin regions. Its importance 
is due to its abundance, accessibility, size, agreeable saline taste, 
evergreen habit, high percentage of usableness—leaves, stems, 
flowers, and fruits all being edible—and tremendous root develop- 
ment enabling great tolerance of drought, ability to withstand low 
temperature, copious production of fattening, highly palatable 
seed, and high nutritiousness. Roots of this species have been 
known to reach 1914 feet below ground level (42). The disad- 
vantages of Atriplex canescens as a forage plant are in large measure 
due to its brittleness and the palatability of its seed. The seed 
crop, when produced, is devoured wholesale. Elsewhere the bushes 
are so broken down and weakened by grazing that they either fail 
to produce a viable seed crop or else succumb entirely. If pro- 
tected in summer, however, the shrub can successfully withstand 
reasonably heavy winter use. 
Jared G. Smith (724) considers the species worthy of cultivation 
on soils that will not grow grain, alfalfa, or tame grasses and 
regards it as superior to the shrubby Australian, saltbushes, in that it 
thrives where the winters are quite severe. 
In its annual report for the year ended June 30, 1919, the New 
Mexico Agricultural Experiment Station published chemical 
analyses of this species (under the name “ chamiza”) showing, on 
a moisture-free basis, the following percentages of crude protein: 
Per cent 
DTS 7 hi: ) eRe nS ee een aN IN fk ae Cee Pa ebay 18. 94 
Old+leaves. and: stems 6. 2 8 52 Ve eee eee ene cei ee eee eee 10. 55 
New leaves .and ‘stems2 22) eee aes eee eee 10. 66 
Fruits. 22 0h 8") Se Ss SEs Sa ee eee pete ay eer eee 10. 03 
