REPORT OF THE FORESTER. 183 



5 or 10 years more must elapse before absolutely conclusive results 

 may be obtained, yet even now the data on yield, mortality, and 

 damage by various agencies secured by the remeasurement are the 

 most reliable thus far obtained anywhere. The remeasurements will 

 yield most reliable information of various kinds, obtainable in no 

 other way. 



Range reconnaissance was slightly increased; approximately 

 2,500,000 acres was examined and mapped by special parties, and 

 373,478 acres by local Forest officers, making a grand total to date 

 of 11,184,050 acres. The maps and field data collected furnish the 

 basis for range improvement and intensive range management. 

 Investigations in seeding ranges to cultivated forage plants were 

 continued on a limited scale. Further investigations in the natural 

 revegetation of range concerned primarily the practical application 

 of deferred and rotation grazing. At the Utah Experiment Station 

 on the Manti Forest, the Jornada Range Reserve in New Mexico, and 

 the Santa Rita Range Reserve in Arizona a system of deferred and 

 rotation grazing was put into application in connection with range 

 management on a large scale. The results secured on desert ranges 

 of the Southwest and also by minor experimental tests throughout 

 the National Forests confirm the belief that the principles of deferred 

 grazing, as developed by previous experiments in the Northwest, are 

 applicable throughout western range lands. 



The work of collecting and identifying plants which make up the 

 forage crop on National Forest ranges and the collection of field notes 

 on the distribution, forage value, and life history of these plants was 

 continued. 



Minor observations were continued on the effect of grazing upon 

 the reproduction of conifer forests, as was the study at the Utah 

 Experiment Station of sheep and cattle grazing in aspen forests. An 

 investigation of the method of handling goats on the goat ranges of 

 the Southwest secured improved methods of handling the goats and 

 established the desirability of a system of deferred grazing. Demon- 

 stration tests of improved methods of handling both range and stock 

 were initiated. 



Continued study was given the difficult subject of grazing manage- 

 ment of alpine lands subject to erosion and floods. Minor investiga- 

 tions were initiated in California and on the Jornada Range Reserve 

 to determine the effect of burning the range upon the subsequent 

 production of forage. 



In the handling of cattle studies were initiated at the Jornada 

 Range Reserve to determine how far it is possible under range con- 

 ditions of the Southwest to increase the calf crop, improve the grade 

 of stock, and reduce the losses by a segregation of breeding stock 

 from dry stock, by careful attention to the selection and number of 

 bulls used, by systematic vaccination to prevent losses from black- 

 leg, and by retaining selected animals for the breeding herd when 

 sales are made. During the last half of the year similar work was 

 started on the Santa Rita Range Reserve. Additional minor investi- 

 gations in the handling of cattle were continued on the Lewis and 

 Clark, Medicine Bow, and Inyo Forests. 



A number of demonstration tests were continued to furtner the 

 adoption by sheepmen of the bedding-out system of handling sheep. 



