PLANT SUCCESSION AND RANGE MANAGEMENT. 
41 
PALATABILITY. 
The profusion of weedy or nongrasslike plants and the scattered 
occurrence of grasses make the foxglove-sweet-sage-yarrow consocia- 
tion best suited for the grazing of sheep. In general, only the 
grasses and a very few of the nongrasslike species of the vegetation 
characteristic of the second stage are eagerly grazed by cattle and 
horses. These constitute only a very small proportion of the plant 
Low Larkspur ^ 
-JFeppergrass 
Fig. 15. — Plants characteristic of the early second-weed stage. 
cover. While, as already stated, sheep crop a grass range less closely 
than cattle and horses, sheep nevertheless eat the herbage of grasses 
where such feed constitutes only a relatively small part of the total 
forage crop. Most of the nongrasslike plants are grazed more or 
less closely by sheep. Therefore, the highest possible utilization of 
the second-weed-stage type is obtained by the grazing of sheep, pro- 
vided, of course, the animals are properly handled. 
