38 FORAGE CONDITIONS AND PROBLEMS. 



NEEDS OF THE REGION. 



On account of such diversity of conditions it will be necessary to con- 

 sider certain divisions of the territory more or less separately. 



The greatest need of the Washington region, aside from the Okano- 

 gan River drainage area, is summer feed. As stated, this is principally 

 a sheep region, where the animals are pastured the greater part of the 

 year on the desert mesas of the Big Bend and contiguous regions in the 

 winter and in the mountains for about three and one-half months 

 during summer. The need of having animals in good condition in the 

 fall, both for market and for entering the winter, and the necessity of 

 an abundance of green feed for the best development of the lamb* 

 render these limited highland summer pastures of great importance to 

 the sheep grower. On the other hand, winter feed is more abundant; 

 for the deserts are extensive, and the irrigated hay lands, such as those 

 of the North Yakima and Ellensburg regions, are producing more hay 

 every } T ear. For 3 r ears past such communities have been shipping hay 

 in large quantities to Coast points; in other words, they produce more 

 hay than the}' can feed at home. For the greatest economy it is evi- 

 dent that the effort should lie to increase summer feed so that enough 

 stock can be summered in the region to consume the winter feed at 

 home, thus saving transportation on raw material. 



It was considerations of this kind that led Messrs. Benson and Bab-' 

 cock to offer to cooperate with the Department of Agriculture for the 

 purpose of determining what could be done to increase the summer 

 feed in the Wenatchee Mountains, in which they are interested. 



Messrs. F. E. Benson and W. H. Babcock have come into posses- 

 sion of a large body of railroad land in the Big Bend at Trinidad, and 

 a similar but smaller area in the Wenatchee Mountains southwest of 

 Wenatchee. Their purpose has been to organize a sheep ranch on a 

 sound basis, having definitely provided both summer and winter feed 

 on lands which they control either by title or rental, instead of depend- 

 ing upon the open range for the larger part of both seasons 1 feed and 

 being compelled to go out of business sooner or later, as is the case 

 with so many of the stockmen in the West. The recognition of their 

 need of more and better summer feed, which is the need of the region 

 in general, induced them to offer to cooperate with the Department of 

 Agriculture in experiments to improve the forage conditions of the 

 summer grazing grounds by donating the use of an entire section of 

 fenced land wherein experiments could be conducted. This offer has 

 been accepted by the Department, and experiments have been begun 

 under the direction of the Agrostologist. The objects of these investi- 

 gations will be the introduction of forage plants which will increase 

 the feed on highland pastures; a study of the effect of systematic 

 grazing as compared with present methods, and of seeding at different 

 seasons of the year, both with and without cultivation: a study of local 



■- 



