HISTORICAL. 21 



Unfortunately, no detailed report was made on the different pastures, and it 

 was impossible to tell whether rotation or disking and harrowing was of the 

 greater value in securing these results. At the end of the second year, a 

 further improvement of 30 to 50 per cent was noted in the disked pastures. 

 By the close of the three-year period, while the whole area had improved more 

 than 100 per cent, the greatest improvement was noted in the pastures which 

 had been disked and harrowed. Two minor experiments of much practical 

 interest were also carried out successfully. The one consisted of plowing 

 furrows 12 feet apart over 10 acres of pasture 9. The many fruits caught in 

 the furrows germinated readily and grew vigorously because of the increased 

 water-content. The latter also benefited the grasses between the furrows. 

 The other test involved the transplanting of grass mats and bunches for the 

 purpose of covering bare areas in prairie-dog towns and other denuded areas. 

 The results are of especial significance and are further discussed in Chapter VI. 



Griffiths, 1901, 1904, 1907, 1910, 1915.— Griffiths's work upon the grazing 

 ranges of southern Arizona from 1903 to 1910 is entitled to great credit as the 

 earliest consistent study of range production. The quadrat method was 

 employed more or less, and some attention was paid to physical factors and 

 incidentally to changes of population. The objects of the investigation were 

 (1) to demonstrate that run-down and overstocked ranges will recover under 

 proper treatment, (2) to ascertain how long a time is necessary to get appreci- 

 able and complete recovery, and what methods of management will produce 

 such results, (3) to carry on reseeding and introduction experiments in the hope 

 of increasing the total quantity of feed, (4) to measure as accurately as possible 

 the carrying capacity of a known representative area. The report of 1915 on 

 the native pasture grasses of the United States contains a large amount of 

 valuable material with direct bearing upon grazing indicators (plate 4, a). 



The general results of the investigations are shown by the following sum- 

 mary (1910:24): 



"The lands under consideration appear to regain their original productivity 

 in approximately three years of complete protection. 



"Evidence thus far secured seems to indicate that the best lands in the 

 vicinity will improve under stocking at the rate of one bovine animal to 20 

 acres. The poorer lands take a correspondingly larger acreage for each ani- 

 mal. The areas that will carry one head to 20 acres are very limited. 



"Brush and timber are encroaching upon the grasslands, due, it is believed, 

 to protection from fires. 



"A ground cover is not a factor below an altitude of about 3,500 feet. 



"Although the maximum yield of forage may be reached in about three 

 years of protection, improvements in quality of forage will probably go on 

 longer through the continued supplanting of annual plants by perennials of 

 greater value. 



"Thus far alfilerilla is the only introduced plant which has succeeded and 

 this only in the most favored situations. It does not appear to thrive in com- 

 petition with the native perennial grasses at those altitudes where the latter 

 are not grazed. 



"None of the other 200 lots of seed sown has given any promise of success 

 except those of three or four native species. These give beneficial results, but 

 the cost is high. 



"Results seem to be secured much more rapidly through proper protection 

 from overgrazing than by any other method." 



