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[[underlined]] Oct. 27 [[/underlined]] Caught 4 [[underlined]] Microtus neomexicanus [[/underlined]], and shot a few ducks. Took a long ride over the flats and meadows and up along the foothills but saw little of interest. The ruins of old Ft. Wingate are a few piles of adobe out on wet saltgrass marsh. There are several sections of meadow, a great flat dammed up by a lava flow, and an immens spring throwing a big irrigation ditch of alkaline water over the flats, meadows and ranches. It is only a matter of time until the land becomes worthless and a barren bed of soda.

Great quantities of hay, salt grass, saccatone & tule, are cut, baled & sold, but the meadows are now crusted with soda & salt & minerals. No good grass can grow. Even Microtus can live only along some of the water courses where the soda gets washed out.

Transcription Notes:
Microtus is the genus name of voles. I can't find a definition for 'saccatone.' There is a town in Arizona called Sacaton. saccatone = sacatone grass "immens" = "mineral" perhaps saccatone is a type of grass -@meg_shuler pretty sure "immens" is just Vernon misspelling immense -@meg_shuler