114 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



is large, this improvement may be 

 attributed almost wholly to the Forest 

 Service putting the grazing on a sub- 

 stantial basis and assisting and en- 

 couraging permittees to develop water. 

 There is still a great possibility for 

 improvement along this line. On the 

 Pecos Forest there are 90,000 acres, 

 which would carry 5,000 cattle or 20,000 

 sheep, now unused, due to the lack of 

 water, and that could be largely develop- 

 ed by four dams costing $1,000 each. 

 On the Tusayan Forest there are 200,000 

 acres not fully utilized which would 

 carry 1,000 more cattle if properly 

 watered. The Sundance Forest has 

 2,100 acres which were made available 

 by developing four springs in 1913, and 

 plans have been made for developing 20 

 springs in 1914. A great many of the 

 Forests will show similar work in 

 development accomplished and possible 

 development in the future. 



RESEEDING THE RANGE. 



Let me now tell you something of 

 what has been done in the way of 

 reseeding the ranges. In 1907 experi- 

 ments in seeding range to cultivated 

 forage plants were initiated. To date 

 something over 500 experiments, cover- 

 ing 86 Forests, have been initiated. 

 From these tests it has been learned 

 that artificial reseeding can be accom- 

 plished economically only on mountain 

 meadow areas of good soil, and alluvial 

 bottoms along creeks, at an altitude of 



not higher than within 500 to 1,000 

 feet of timber line; also that on these 

 areas timothy is ordinarily the best 

 species and that one year's protection 

 from grazing is necessary after seeding. 

 The work under way on artificial 

 reseeding this year and that planned, is 

 to establish more definitely the economic 

 possibility of improving our better soils 

 by reseeding and possibly by irrigation. 

 A number of observations and reports 

 this year show that at a very small cost 

 for diverting the water at the heads 

 of meadows and scattering it out over 

 the area, then seeding the area to timo- 

 thy, the forage crop has been increased 

 from 100 to 400 per cent, in many 

 cases beyond the cost of the labor. 



PROPER USE, BEST METHOD OF IMPROVE- 

 MENT. 



This method of procediu-e, however, 

 is both slow and expensive and the 

 greater part of our range lands must be 

 improved by protection and natural 

 reseeding — at least within the next 

 20 years — until we know more about 

 artificial reseeding. Our investigations 

 have established beyond doubt that 

 natural reseeding can be accomplished 

 best by a rotation system of grazing, 

 based upon the simple principle that 

 after the vegetation has matured its 

 seed, approximately from August 15 to 

 September 15, grazing aids in scattering 

 and planting seed. A report recently 

 received from the Supervisor of the 



A Mountain Meadow Surrounded by Dense Stand of Red Fir, and Watered by a Winding 



Brook. 



