Cll OLAR No. 8. (Agros. 37.) 



United States Department of Agriculture, 



DIVISION OF AGROSTOLOGY. 



[Grass and Forage Plant Investigations.] 



EXPERIMENTS IN RANGE IMPROVEMENT. 



The chief problem in the cattle regions of the Southwest is, How 

 shall we restore or bring back the grasses on lands where they have 

 been destroyed by overstocking? An estimate based on such statis- 

 tics as we have been able to obtain from correspondents indicates 

 that the carrying capacity of the southwestern ranges was 40 per 

 cent less at the beginning of 1897 than it had been in 1880. The 

 money value of this loss has been variously estimated at from ten 

 million to forty million dollars in the State of Texas alone, and on 

 the other ranges in the Western States and Territories the aggregate 

 loss from this cause (overstocking) is not less than a hundred million 

 dollars. In other words, if the natural pastures in the country west 

 of the ninety-eighth meridian were now covered with as luxuriant a 

 growth of grass as they were twenty years ago, the additional num- 

 ber of live stock which could be carried would be worth probably 

 upwards of a hundred million dollars. 



The regrassing of overstocked lands is to the interest both of the 

 individual stockowner and the commonwealth. The smaller losses 

 sustained by each owner become in their aggregate a sum which 

 materially affects the welfare of the State. It is the common testi- 

 mony of stockmen that there are vast areas where the abundance 

 and quality of the natural herbage has been decreased. The better 

 grasses have been run out by overstocking during years of drought. 

 Weedy annuals of less value, because less palatable to stock and less 

 nutritious, have taken their places. If these fail the ground becomes 

 entirely bare of vegetation. In other sections the amount of natural 

 pasturage has been decreased by the encroachment of perennial weeds 

 and thorny shrubs and by the cactus thickets, or the grasses have 

 been destroyed by rabbits and prairie dogs. Overstocked lands are 

 not only unproductive, but they rapidly deteriorate in productive 

 capacity. They require rest and treatment to again restore them. 

 The soil soon becomes hard and compacted by the trampling of cattle. 

 Less of the annual rainfall is absorbed by the soil, and more each 

 year is lost in the flood waters. Moreover the finer and hence richer 

 portions of the surface soils are washed into the streams, because 

 there is no protecting mat of grass roots to retain them. 



