30 BULLETIN 545, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
instances until the soil moisture was reduced to 7.5 per cent, though 
two species died when there was a water content of 9.8 per cent. 
Flower stalks begin to appear during the first week in July and 
continue until about the first week in August. The seed crop begins 
to ripen as early as August 1 and continues throughout the month, 
few immature seeds being found in September. The vitality of the 
seed crop is about the average for upland grazing plants. The aver- 
age germination for the three years of study was 21.2 per cent. 
From this it would seem that many other species, such as moun- 
tain wheat grass, which shows an average germination of 64 per 
cent, would reproduce much more abundantly. Smooth wild rye, 
however, is one of the most aggressive species on the high grazing 
lands. The seedlings develop deep root systems, and a large per- 
centage of the young plants succeed in rather adverse situations. 
The grazing value of smooth wild rye is high. By many stockmen 
the plant is considered rather too coarse for sheep, though it is 
probable that its forage value in this respect is underestimated, 
since observations show that sheep readily graze it. Sheep rarely 
crop the flower stalks, because these are produced exceptionally 
early, and their rapid height growth soon puts the best part of them 
out of reach of the animals, and because the stalks are somewhat 
coarser than sheep relish and become unpalatable early in the sea- 
son. All things considered, however, this plant furnishes good 
forage by the time the upper ranges are grazed, and the herbage is 
consumed ravenously throughout the season. Horses are fond of 
the flower stalks, and until the seeds are matured and disseminated 
the spikes or flower heads also furnish choice feed. Cattle graze the 
forage closely even after the seed has been disseminated. 
White Foxtail. 
(Sitanion velutinum.) 
White foxtail, often called wild barley, to which it is closely related, 
is undesirable on the range because of its low forage value and its 
aggressiveness on overgrazed areas. 
The plant derives its name from the prominent awns, which, with 
the entire spike, turn a fight-straw color upon reaching maturity. 
It is a tufted perennial grass from 1 to 2 feet tall, the culms rather 
conspicuously spreading on the ground, the leaf blades mainly basal, 
somewhat involute and rough, the upper surface pubescent. The 
glumes are provided with long stiff awns, which, at maturity, are 
strikingly divergent (Plate XXV) . 
White foxtail is most abundant in the Hudsonian zone. It is 
also found on the lower grazing types, though not to the same extent 
as on upland ranges. The situations most favorable to it are open 
glades of rather poorly disintegrated soils with moisture content 
