B. P. I.— 547. 



A PROTECTED STOCK RANGE IN ARIZONA. 



INTRODUCTION. 



This report is one of progress simply and is necessarily incomplete, 

 the details being purposely omitted. Many essential facts are also 

 left out, because they have been included in a previous bulletin a 

 of the series of the Bureau of Plant Industry. 



The investigations really date from 1903, when a tract of land 

 49.2 square miles in area upon the Coronado National Forest was 

 closed to grazing by arrangement with the Forest Service and in 

 cooperation with the agricultural experiment station of the University 

 of Arizona. Since that time another small tract of nearly a section 

 has been inclosed and cooperative arrangements entered into with 

 four ranchers contiguous to the south and east line of the large 

 tract whereby. the investigations will be considerably benefited in 

 extent of territory, diversity of conditions, and interpretation of 

 results by practical range operators. The map, figure 1, shows the 

 area covered and the locations of the different pastures. A record 

 of the operation of these areas under different systems of manage- 

 ment during the next few years ought to throw important light upon 

 the value of the proper handling of these semidesert lands. 



EARLY HISTORY OF THE INCLOSED AREA. 



Before the inclosure of this area it was open range, and large herds 

 have fed here for years. The cattle usually come over in the fall from 

 the other side of the mountains and remain until the April round-ups. 

 In the upper portion of the field there was once a ranch of one of the 

 largest cattle companies of southern Arizona, which has always been 

 heavily grazed, but much heavier in times past than during the last 

 few years before the inclosure was made. All in all, it may be said that 

 heavy pasturing was the rule here for many years previous to that time. 

 (Compare the two illustrations shown in Plate I.) A portion of the 

 area farthest from water, mostly on the edge of the perennial-grass 



a Bulletin 67, Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, entitled "Range 

 Investigations in Arizona." 1904. 



27139— Bui. 177—10 2 7 



