192 ANNUAL EEPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULrUBE. 



covered to 12,288,88j acres. The data gathered are applied in more 

 intensive grazing management. With the beginning of the 1917 

 field season the plans for range reconnaissance were changed to 

 meet the situation created in the National Forest live-stock industry 

 by the severe winter, increased agricultural settlement, and the war. 

 AH available men of sufficient experience were assigned to extensive 

 reconnaissance, with a view to covering as many as possible of the 

 ranges before permits are issued for the 1918 grazing season. The 

 information will aid in increasing the number of live stock on the 

 ranges to the maximum possible without excessive damage. Men of 

 less experience were released for military service. This change in 

 plans to meet emergency conditions will curtail the intensive range 

 classification, but will make possible large temporary increases in 

 stock witliout jeopardizing the permanent welfare of the range, for- 

 ests, and watersheds. 



Continued experiments on a small scale in seeding range to culti- 

 vated forage plants gave results which are chiefly negative, but are 

 important in answering calls for information and preventing out- 

 lays on useless range-improvement projects. Studies in natural 

 revegetation of depleted and partly depleted range lands were con- 

 tinued by demonstration tests in range management. Light grazing 

 during the growing period for three years has brought excellent 

 recuperation of approximately 47,000 acres of grama-grass range on 

 the Jornada Range Eeserve. On high mountain lands of the Manti 

 Forest it was found that erosion and decrease in soil fertility fol- 

 lowing range depletion materially lengthen the period necessary for 

 revegetation. The data secured afford further explanation of why 

 certain ranges recuperate rapidly under proper care and others re- 

 quire years before marked improvement takes place. These results 

 are important additions to our fundamental information relating to 

 range management and improvement. 



The study of the plants which make up the forage crop on the 

 National Forest ranges was continued and steady progress is being 

 made by all forest officers in acquiring essential knowledge of the 

 range forage crop, both valuable forage plants and poisonous plants. 

 Approximately 4,000 specimens, including a number of new species, 

 were collected, identified, and notes furnished to the collectors. 

 Notes of value for distribution are now available for about 2,500 

 species of National Forest range plants. 



Reports dealing with grazing management on yellow-pine forests 

 of the Southwest, yellow-pine forests of the Northwest, and aspen 

 forests were completed, and one publication on grazing in coniferous 

 forests of the Pacific slope is under way, forming the last in a series 

 on this important phase of grazing investigations. The study of 

 goat ranges and the management of goats on National Forest ranges 

 was continued and extended. Its results are already bringing about 

 an improvement in the handling of goats on the range and a better 

 understanding between goat permittees and forest officers. 



The study of grazing management on alpine lands brought out 

 the hitherto unrecognized importance of erosion in its earlier and 

 less severe stages, and of leaching, as a cause of range degeneration 

 through the loss of soil fertility. The results emphasize the neces- 



