@article {52569, title = {Flora of the Jornada Experimental Range, New Mexico}, journal = {Copeia}, volume = {4}, year = {1943}, note = {(also in Amer. Midl. Nat. 30:626-670. 1943)}, month = {1943}, pages = {216-222}, abstract = {Various members of the Forest Service made a collection of specimens of 528 species of ferns and seed plants and a few lower plants at Jornada Experimental Range in southern New Mexico during the twenty-five year period from 1915 to 1939. This local herbarium serves as a basis for analysis of the flora and vegetation of this representative semidesert area and has contributed several interesting state records and range extensions. Jornada Experimental Range is located in northeastern Dona Ana County with headquarters 23 miles north of Las Cruces. Occupying 302 square miles (193,394 acres), it is the largest experimental range in the United States. It lies at the southern end of Jornada del Muerto, a plain having a north-south extent of more than 100 miles. The Spanish name Jornada del Muerto means "the day{\textquoteright}s journey of the dead man" but is sometimes translated also as "journey of death." According to Wislizenus (1848), the name refers to an old tradition that the first person that attempted to cross the plain in one day perished. At this point, the banks of the Rio Grande become so rough and mountainous that early travelers going north to Santa Fe were forced to leave them and journey across the desolate, waterless plain a distance of 90 miles.}, keywords = {flora, Jornada Experimental Range, specimen collection}, url = {/files/bibliography/063.pdf}, author = {E. L. Little Jr. and R.S. Campbell} } @article {52598, title = {Amphibians and reptiles of Jornada Experimental Range, New Mexico}, journal = {Copeia}, volume = {4}, year = {1937}, month = {1937}, pages = {216-222}, abstract = {This report with respect to 27 species of amphibians and reptiles on the Jornada Experimental Range and 7 additional species in Mesilla Valley, Dona Ana County, New Mexico, is based on collections and notes made by the authors as a spare-time project during 1934 and 1935. From 1931 to 1933, the junior author studied individuals of several species. Fourteen of these species have not been reported previously from this county. Thus, the Dona Ana County list is increased to 9 species of amphibians and 34 of reptiles, more than are known in any other county in New Mexico. The authors{\textquoteright} specimen collections of Amyda emoryi and Rana tarahumarae in Mesilla Valley, a part of Rio Grande Valley, are probably the first and second records, respectively, of these two species in this state.The Jornada Experimental Range, where nearly all the authors{\textquoteright} collections were made, has its headquarters 23 miles north of Las Cruces. It is an area of 302 square miles at the southern end of Jornada del{\textquoteright} Muerto, a plain which extends northward for more than 100 miles. Most of the Jornada range is a plain in the Lower Sonoran life zone, varying in elevation from 4,000 to 4,600 feet and without permanent water, except wells and artificial tanks. San Andres Mountains and foothills along the eastern boundary rise in the Upper Sonoran life zone to 8,000 feet and have a few permanent springs, of which Ropes Spring is best known.}, keywords = {amphibians, Jornada Experimental Range, reptiles, specimen collections, study}, url = {/files/bibliography/038.pdf}, author = {E. L. Little Jr. and Keller, J.G.} } @article {52599, title = {Bryophytes of the Jornada Experimental Range, New Mexico}, journal = {The Bryologist}, volume = {40}, year = {1937}, month = {September-Octobe}, pages = {81-83}, abstract = {The writer, as a spare-time study, made a small collection of bryophytes on the Jornada Experimental Range in southern New Mexico in 1934 and 1935. The number of species represented, about 25, is considerably less than that of Brother Ars{\`e}ne{\textquoteright}s collections in the higher mountain zones of northern New Mexico. Brother Ars{\`e}ne{\textquoteright}s did not cite twelve of these species, indicated by an asterisk in the list below. Inasmuch as differences in bryophyte flora are largely the result of differences in environmental conditions, the physiography and climate of the Jornada Experimental Range will be reviewed briefly. This range, with an area of 302 square miles, is north of Las Cruces, Dona Ana County, and is located in one of the sections of least rainfall of the state. For the most part, it is a plain that varies in elevation from 4,000 to 4,600 feet. It is part of the Lower Sonoran Life Zone with unconsolidated sands, adobe and gravel and without springs and streams. On the east border, the San Andres Mountains and foothills, composed chiefly of upper Paleozoic limestone with some sandstone and shale, rise to a maximum elevation of 8,000 feet in the Upper Sonoran Life Zone. The average rainfall is 8.97inches on the plain at the range headquarters, elevation 4,150 feet, and 12.61inches in the foothills at Ropes Spring, elevation 5,600 feet. Collections were also made in Dona Ana Mountains of igneous rock at the southwestern edge of the area. The vegetation of this section, mainly semidesert-shrub and grassland types, has been described by Campbell and others.}, keywords = {bryophytes, climate, Jornada Experimental Range, physiography, southern New Mexico}, url = {/files/bibliography/037.pdf}, author = {E. L. Little Jr.} } @article {52600, title = {A study of poisonous drymaria on southern New Mexico ranges}, journal = {Ecology}, volume = {18}, year = {1937}, month = {1937}, pages = {416-426}, abstract = {Among the harmful plants that grow on clay (adobe) soils on ranges of southern New Mexico, the most poisonous for cattle are dwarf summer annuals of the species Drymaria holostcoides Bentham (D. pachyphylla \Woot. and Standl.). Of more than a dozen species of J)rvmaria occurring in Central America, Mexico and southwestern United States, members of only the species named are known to be toxic. These plants have been found in southern New Mexico, southwestern Texas, southeastern Arizona, and Mexico. Because of the great number of deaths of range cattle caused by eating these poisonous plants, a study of them was made by the author in 1934 and 1935 with a view to determining feasible methods of eradication and how livestock losses might be reduced. These investigations were made at the Jornada Experimental Range, U.S. Forest Service, near Las Cruces, New Mexico. Discovery of these plants as poisonous is recent. In 1922, the New Mexico Agricultural Experiment Station and the Bureau of Plant Industry, U.S. Department of Agriculture, began a cooperative study of these plants. Lantow ({\textquoteright}29), of the former institution, demonstrated their extreme toxicity to cattle and sheep in feeding experiments from 1923 to 1927 and found all parts of the plants above ground to be poisonous at all stages of growth. Because of the unpalatability of the plants, forced feeding was necessary. Campbell ({\textquoteright}31) showed poisonous drymaria to be a pioneer weed in plant succession on clay soils, and made germination tests of the seeds. Mathews ({\textquoteright}33) conducted additional feeding experiments in southwestern Texas in 1932 and determined lethal doses. He reported that the plants caused death in a cow when they were eaten at the low rate of 0.4 percent of body weight, in a sheep at 0.6 pe cent, and in a goat at 0.97 percent. The toxic principle has not been determined.}, keywords = {cattle, harmful plants, poisonous drymaria, southern New Mexico}, url = {/files/bibliography/036.pdf}, author = {E. L. Little Jr.} } @article {52606, title = {Poisonous drymaria on ranges of southern New Mexico}, journal = {Western Livestock}, volume = {21}, year = {1936}, month = {1936}, pages = {1, 4}, keywords = {drymaria, poisonous, southern New Mexico}, author = {E. L. Little Jr.} } @conference {52611, title = {American egrets at the Jornada Experimental Range, New Mexico}, booktitle = {Condor}, volume = {36}, year = {1934}, month = {1934}, pages = {247}, abstract = {Two migrating American Egrets (Casmerodium albus egretta) were observed at the Jornada Experimental Range near Las Cruces, New Mexico, on April 23, 1934. As this species is not listed in Mrs. F.M. Bailey{\textquoteright}s {\textquotedblleft}Birds of New Mexico,{\textquotedblright} this note is offered as a migration record. Since they probably are becoming more numerous as a result of protection, others doubtless have observed these rare birds previously within the state. These American Egrets remained most of the day around the water tanks at the Headquarters of the Jornada Experimental Range on a desert mesa about 15 miles east of the Rio Grande and attracted the attention of everyone at headquarters. The distinguishing marks of the species--the white plumage, black legs and feet, yellow bill and, on one bird, aigrette plumes--were clearly observed with prism binoculars of 8-diameter magnification at a distance of 125 feet. Pictures were taken at this distance also. The egrets stayed near the tanks with the cattle and were not easily frightened. When approached too closely by people, they would fly to another tank a short distance away. On the morning of October 16, five more egrets on their southward migration were seen at Road Tank, 6 miles northeast of headquarters. In order to be certain these birds were not the smaller Snowy Egret (Egretta thula), the writer examined a specimen of the latter species in the museum of the New Mexico State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. Living Snowy Egrets also were seen at Picacho-Bosque on the Rio Grande near Las Cruces where about 25 pairs nested this year.}, keywords = {American egrets, Jornada Experimental Range, observation}, url = {/files/bibliography/027.pdf}, author = {E. L. Little Jr.} }