Bulletin Author:United States Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: in the vicinity of Rye Patch. This, together with saltbush (Atriplex cnnfcrtifoli'i), bud sage, hop sage, and retí sage, constituted the main browse, while the g... more »rass feed is produced mainly by Indian millet ((Sryzojuti cusp!data) on the lower sandy areas and Buckley's bluegrass (Poa bu???yana), Wheeler's bluegrass (¡'mi wheele?!), and a little sheep fescue on the higher areas. Very little of the latter was seen in this vicinity, but it was very abundant in the pine forest mountains to the northeast of here last year. The eondition of the feed now as compared with former times is very difficult to estimate. There has been so little attention paid to the purely winter grazing grounds that there are but few data regarding them. Water is so scarce here that pasturing is possible only when there isa heavy fall of snow, and the character of the vegetation is such that it is of but little value except for winter feed. Consequently the thousands of sheep which winter in the region live on browse of the desert during the winter months. If the snowfall is copious they are able to get down to the mesa, but during dry winters they feed around the summits of the mountains, within traveling distance of snow, which is often their only source of water for several months of the year. It is to be understood, of course, that many flocks of sheep congregate around such places as Lovelock and Carson Sink for the purpose of obtaining hay for a portion of their winter ration, and thousands are driven here to be fattened for the markets. Consequently this desert, which to the ordinary observer has neither feed nor water, is of great importance, for it supplies feed of a coarse kind upon which thousands of sheep pass several months without other expense than herding. As stated in last year's report, th...« less