Aside from its use for dairy and beef cattle, alfalfa is perhaps the best hog pasture in this country. The feeding value of the hay is such that brood sows can be wintered on it without other feed very satisfactorily. It is also an excellent pasture for horses and mules. Because of its tendency to cause bloat, cattle and sheep should not be pastured on alfalfa except with great caution. [For further information, see the article Alfalfa, page 192.] On non-irrigated lands the cereals, especially wheat, are grown for hay very largely on the Pacific coast. Wild oats (Fig. 543) are a bad weed in that section. It is customary to cut those sec tions of wheat-fields for hay in which wild oats are most prevalent. Barley and oats are also used extensively in some localities for hay. In western Oregon and western Washington timothy and clover occupy much the same place that they do in the timothy region of the East, but in that section orchard-grass and Italian rye-grass, particularly the latter, are much more appreciated than they are in most other parts of the country. Meadow fescue is also frequently met with in western Oregon. Along the northern Pacific coast, espe cially on sandy and peaty soils, velvet-grass is almost universal. It is generally regarded as a pest because of its low yield of hay and because stock will not eat it until starved to it. However, they can be made to acquire a taste for it, after which they will thrive on it. It yields about half a ton of hay per acre.
Native Meadows and Pastures of the Plains and Ranges. Figs. 676, 677.
The native or unsown meadows and pastures, existing on unbroken or wild land, extend over such a vast extent of country, with such varied charac teristics of soil and climate, that only the larger phases of the subject can be treated in a discussion of this natare. Some of the leading species compris ing the grazing flora may be mentioned. The native hay lands and grazing lands are not necessarily ten anted by grasses and clovers alone, as we shall see.
The Southwest.
The greater part of Arizona, New Mexico and Texas is included in this region. Poplars and wil lows are abundant along the rivers, while mesquit and creosote bush cover large stretches on the sandy and grav elly mesas. The native meadows in the northern part consist largely of saccaton and salt grass, which furnish forage of a poor quality. Farther south there is an open prairie coun try. In some sections of New Mexico and Texas on the mesa lands, the grama-grasses fur nish considerable summer and winter pasturage. In the ex treme southwest, in the Texas prairie section, the wheat grasses, blue-stems, gramas, wild-rye, mesquit-grass, switch grass, needle-grass and buffalo grass furnish considerable native pasturage in seasons of good rains.
The important grasses enter ing into the composition of the native meadows and pastures are, the western wheat-grass (Agropyron), feather and bushy blue-stem (Andropogon), three grama-grasses (Bouteloua), Ari zona millet (Clortochloa), wild rye (E/)flitus), everlasting grass (Er iochloa), curly mesquit (Hila ria), wild timothy (.11 uhlenber
g ia), white-top (Triod io), galleta or black grams (Hi laria), alkali saccaton (Pa nieunt), needle grass, (. rist ida), buffalo-grass (Buthitis), bunch drop-seed grass (Sporobolus), and saltgrass (Dis tichlis).
The following plants, other than grasses, are of great importance on the ranges for forage : Mesquit beans (Prosopis, p. WS), screw bean (Prosopis), lupines (Lupinus), milk-vetches t.l, saltlinshes, winterfat (Burst in), plan tains, abilaria, StAley vetch. tallow-weed (aet tall tallow-weed t A m Wy beggarweal, wild bean. Prickly pear and other cacti have been used for forage in this section by burning off the spines (page The Great Plains region.
The native grasses and forage plants of this region do not play such an important part in agriculture as formerly. There are still however, immense tracts of open prairie front which large quantities of native hay are cut. In wet and swampy places, slough-grass (Spartina),if cut when The Rocky mountain region.
The cultivated crops grown in this region are insignificant compared with the millions of cattle, sheep and horses that subsist on the summer moun tain ranges and the winter desert feeding-grounds. The Red Desert of Wyoming alone is estimated to winter 300,000 to 500,000 sheep. In Wyoming some alfalfa is grown, but the bulk of the hay is made from the native grasses. The native meadows are composed chiefly of blue-grasses (Pon), wheat grasses (Agropyron), b r om e - grasses (Bromus), rye-grasses (Elymus), blue-joint, needle-grass, hair grass, mountain timothy (Phleum), mountain fox tail (Alopecurus), sedges and rushes. In the foothills young, furnishes a supply of coarse hay. Several blue-stems together with switch-grass (Panieurn), side-oats grama (Bou,elona), and western wheat grass, supply the hulk of the native hay. All of these are also valuable for pasturage, but the two chief pasture grasses are buffalo-grass and blue grama. Other grasses of importance are wild rye, wild timothy, reed canary-grass, and needle-grass (Stipa). Two native forage plants, other than grasses, which have come into prominence because of their forage value are the wild vetch (Hosackia; see the article on Vetch, page 658) and Beckwith's clover (Trifolium Beekwithii). The former occurs more or less abundantly throughout the prairie region, while the latter is common in low meadows along the upper Sioux valley and other places in South Dakota. As elsewhere on the open ranges of the country, much harm has been done by over-stocking bordering on the Great Plains region, blue grama is abundant and important. Sheep's fescue and snow grass (Festuca) are also important on the high mountain ridges.