FOREST SERVICE. 397 



Protection Against Poisonqus Plants, 



Practically no reports of losses of live stock because of poisonous 

 plants- were received, although in previous years reports of this 

 character were numerous. The cooperative work conducted by the 

 Forest Service and the Bureau of Plant Industry has resulted in the 

 determination of the plants which have hitherto caused the greatest 

 losses of live stock and the location of the most important areas 

 within which they occur. As the poison areas are located, they are 

 marked with warning notices. One member of the Bureau of Plant 

 Industry has been steadily engaged in making investigations of 

 ranges reputed to contain poisonous plants. 



Forage and Range Investigations, 



During the year the technical and scientific features of the grazing 

 work were greatly enlarged in scope and 5 new members were added 

 to the force employed. The field for study and improvement is a 

 wide one, each year's experience demonstrating more convincingly 

 that the prevailing methods of handling live stock upon the Forest 

 ranges are economically wasteful and needlessly destructive. It is 

 apparent, too, that the public welfare is best subserved by the deter- 

 mination of means of correction and cure, rather than by the exclu- 

 sion of the stock from the Forests. The problem in general presents 

 three phases: (1) The restoration of depleted ranges to a normal 

 condition of productivity; (2) the development of unused resources, 

 and (3) the conservation and economical utilization of all resources. 



To secure an adequate basis for the immediate and future utiliza- 

 tion of the forage products of the Forests along lines most productive 

 to stock growers and least injurious to other mterests, there is need 

 for a careful and thorough reconnoissance of each Forest under the 

 direction of men technically trained, experienced in methods of 

 handling stock upon open ranges, and thoroughly qualified to deter- 

 mine all factors mfluencing range management, either favorably or 

 adversely. This work is well under way. It will aim to determine 

 the character of all land within the Forests, the kind of stock to 

 which each natural grazing unit is best adapted, the natural periods 

 of use for grazing purposes, the undergrazed, fully grazed, and over- 

 stocked ranges, the areas upon wliich poisonous plants abound, and 

 the areas infested with range-destroying rodents. Grazing worldng 

 plans will be prepared from the data secured by these reconnois- 

 sances. They will serve as a guide in the allotment of grazing privi- 

 leges, the determination of improved methods of range control, and 

 the improvement of the ranges. Already the grazing management of 

 several Forests has been materially improved as a result of these 

 studies. Detailed reconnoissances were inaugurated on the Coconino, 

 Deerlodge, Medicine Bow, and Targhee Forests. 



The series of experiments to determine the feasibility of lambing 

 sheep in small inclosures, which was initiated upon the Cochetopa 

 Forest in Colorado during the spring of 1910, was continued througn- 

 out the year, fairly conclusive results being secured. It was demon- 

 strated that under conditions comparable to those governing the 

 experiments, the pastures would effect a saving of lambs and labor, 

 which during the hfe of the improvements would more than oITset 



