PREFACE. 



The main features of the range prohleni liave been reduced to two: 

 The carrvino- capacity of the range, and the best methods of managing 

 tlie range so as to secure the largest amount of feed from it without 

 permanent injury to the food phmts that furnish the covering of the 

 soil. The principles of management may be reduced to the following: 

 A proper control of the amount of stock upon a given range and the 

 time of the year at whicli they are allowed upon the various subdivisions 

 of it; the protection of such native plants as are of value, and, par- 

 ticularly, the saving of seeds of such plants and scattering them upon 

 the range; lastly, the introduction upon the range of such new forage 

 plants as experience has shown can be thus introduced. 



A knowledge of the carrving capacitv of the ranges is of the utmost 

 importance, for it nuist form the basis of any intelligent legislation 

 relating to the range question. This knowledge determines the rental 

 and sale value of range lands and should also determine the size of the 

 minimum lease or homestead for range purposes in case laws are passed 

 providing for such disposal of the public ranges. 



The pi'esent rcpoi't includes a general study of range problems in 

 southern Arizona, but is devoted. more particularlv to the investiga- 

 tions conducted in cooperation between the United States Departm.ent 

 of Agriculture and the Arizona Experiment Station on two tracts of 

 land situated on the Santa Rita Forest Reserve in the Territory of 

 Arizona. The work upon one of these tracts, consisting of a fenced 

 area of 58 square miles, has been conducted under the immediate super- 

 vision of Dr. David Griffiths, of this Office. The work upon the other 

 area, which is also fenced and consists of some 240 acres of land, has 

 been conducted under the supervision of Prof. R. H. Forbes, Director 

 of the Arizona Experiment Station, by Prof. J. J. Thornbur of that 

 station, since August, 1901. Previous to that time Doctor Griffiths 

 was a member of the station statf at Tucson, and conducted the work 

 on the small tract also. Once each year the Department has furnished 

 the Arizona Experiment Station with a report of the work done by 

 its officers upon the large tract, while the officers of the station have 

 furnished to the Department a similar report of the work on the small 



tract. Particular attention is called to the studv of the amount of 



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