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work of destruction Las gone so far that sometliing more than mere 

 rest is necessary. The valuable grasses have been killed out and their 

 places takeu by plants of weedy habit, of little, if any, value for forage, 

 or the land is without vegetation at all. To reclaim such areas arti- 

 ficial seeding is necessary. With these places again seeded and pro- 

 ducing forage it will be easier to give at least a partial rest to the 

 lands on which there still remains enough of the good grasses to accom- 

 plish natural reseeding. Many farmers and ranchmen in the N^orth- 

 west have been able to materially increase the stock-carrying capacity 

 of their pasture lands by scattering over the worn spots the seed of 

 such grasses as western wheat-grass {Agropyron spicatum), prairie June- 

 grass {KoeJeria cristata), Kentucky blue grass, and smooth brome. 

 Sometimes these areas are harrowed or "disked" after seeding, and 

 sometimes not. One practice is to seed while the ground is wet and 

 drive stock over the land to work the seed into the soil. 



When wheat-grass is already present in considerable (quantity the pro- 

 ductiveness may be vastly improved by " disking" up the land. Some 

 farmers even go so far as to plow up the land and then allow the wheat- 

 grass to come in again, which it does in a very short time. This latter 

 method keeps the land in better condition and gets rid of weeds, and 

 is a good i)ractice to follow on the smaller ranches. When seed can be 

 had it would be a good plan to sow a small quantity of prairie June- 

 grass, bench-land spear-grass, smooth brome, or other of the better 

 native or introduced sorts, that the land may be occupied at once. 

 Sometimes such annuals as millet, oats, rye, and sorghum can be used 

 to advantage. The practice of fencing the range in such a manner 

 that one portion of it may be grazed while the other is resting is to be 

 recommended. This allows the grasses opportunity to recuperate and 

 to produce seed occasionally. 



If each ranchman and farmer could but keep the land under his own 

 immediate control up to the i)oint of greatest productivity the indirect 

 effect upon the open range through decreased demands upon it would 

 be decidedly beneficial. In the absence of some rational system of 

 control for the open range little can be done in a direct way to bring 

 about better forage conditions upon it, but much can and will be done 

 on private holdings as soon as the ranchers realize, as they are begin- 

 ning to do, that they can not be continually taking from their meadow 

 and pasture lands without adding something to them by care, occasional 

 reseeding, and cultivation. 



