. Bulletin. Gramineae -- United States; Forage plants -- United States. 64 hunger. Sheep eat them more readily than other stock. Many of the species thrive on dry, rocky soils too poor to pr(xluce much other vege- tation, and they probably do a great deal toward improving the fertil- ity of these soils, and are thus indirectly beneficial; but many ranchers regard them as weeds, owing to their tendency to spread rapidly in overstocked pasture lands. THK MILK-VETCHES. The milk-vetches, or rattle-weeds, as some of them are called, are by far tlie best represented group of leguminous plants in the
. Bulletin. Gramineae -- United States; Forage plants -- United States. 64 hunger. Sheep eat them more readily than other stock. Many of the species thrive on dry, rocky soils too poor to pr(xluce much other vege- tation, and they probably do a great deal toward improving the fertil- ity of these soils, and are thus indirectly beneficial; but many ranchers regard them as weeds, owing to their tendency to spread rapidly in overstocked pasture lands. THK MILK-VETCHES. The milk-vetches, or rattle-weeds, as some of them are called, are by far tlie best represented group of leguminous plants in the range region. Of the numerous sorts some are valuable forage plants, others are too small to be of any value or are so unpalatable that stock will not eat them, and a few—the so called "loco weeds"—are in- jurious to stock under certain cir- cumstances, causing considerable loss by killing the animals eating them. The milk-vetches occur on a great variety of soil, from rich, moist bottom lands to dry, sterile, rocky, and gravelly ridges, often forming a large proi)ortion of the vegetation. In some of the species the fruits are» large and fleshy and are much sought after by stock, particularly by sheep. There are i)robably a great many kinds that are of more or less value as forage plants, but our knowledge of the real value of most of the species is very limited and reports are contradictory, some stockmen regarding certain sorts as injurious, while others maintain that they are valuable forage i)lants, stock eating them with the best of results. Amcmg the most common and valuable kinds are bristly-fruited milk- vetch {Astrm/alufi hi/iwfjiottis), ground plum or bullalo pea {A. crassi- carpus), larger ground plum {A. mexicanns), and prairie milk-vetch {A. adsurgenn), (see fig. 26.) Other species, regarded by maily as valu- able, are Morton's milk-vetch {A. mortoni), zigzag milk-vetch {A. fiexu- osus), and sleiuler milk-vetch {A. gracilis). luilkvetch (A. lot
Size: 1249px × 2002px
Photo credit: © Library Book Collection / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectforageplantsunitedst
