306 GRAZING INDICATORS. 



In speaking of the changes accompanying overgrazing in the Texas prairies, 

 Smith (1899: 28) makes the following statement: 



"Before the ranges were overgrazed, the grasses of the red prairies were 

 largely bluestems or sage grasses (Andropogon) , often as high as a horse's back. 

 After pasturing and subsequent to the trampling and hardening of the soil, 

 the dog grasses or needle grasses (Aristida) took the whole country. After 

 further overstocking and trampling, the needle grasses were driven out, and 

 the mesquite grasses (Hilaria and Bulbilis) became the most prominent species. 

 The occurrence of any one of these as the dominant or most conspicuous grass 

 is to some extent an index of the state of the land and of what stage in over- 

 stocking and deterioration has been reached. There is often a succession of 

 dominant grasses in nature through natural causes, but never to as marked an 

 extent as on the cattle ranges during the process of deterioration from over- 

 grazing. On overstocked lands there is uniformly an alternation of needle 

 grass and mesquite at short intervals, unless the overstocking is carried too 

 far, when these perennials give way to annuals and worthless weeds. " 



Smith (1893: 281) has suggested part of the explanation as to the varying 

 opinions upon the condition of the range since the disappearance of the buffalo, 

 in discussing the Sandhills of northern Nebraska: 



" The theory is quite commonly advanced by stockmen and others interested 

 in the country that the sandhills were quite bare of vegetation at a compara- 

 tively recent date and have only commenced to be grassed over since the days 

 of the Indian and buffalo. I doubt very much the correctness of this idea. 

 We have accounts of the sandhills written in the early part of this century 

 which gave the salient features of the landscape about as they exist today. 

 The region is one where physical conditions may vary greatly in a term of 

 years. We were told by stockmen who have been located in the hills for a 

 long time, that the soil is very susceptible to drying, that the lakes sometimes 

 entirely disappear during periods of drought, and that one year a crop of hay 

 may be cut where the year before there was a fine body of water. In wet 

 years the vegetation of the valleys, which is always more luxuriant than that 

 of the drier hills, may extend far up their slopes, while in dry years opposite 

 conditions may prevail. If one sees the sandhill region for the first time 

 when bare of vegetation in winter or early spring, or after the drying out of 

 July and August, one may easily get the idea that the sandhills have never 

 been grassed over. When the freshening up comes after the rains, he may 

 conclude that they are becoming turfed over for the first time." 



Wilcox (1911 : 26) has compiled the opinions and statements of a very large 

 number of explorers and travelers with reference to grazing conditions over 

 the prairies and plains during the past century. These show great divergence, 

 and many of them are directly contradictory. On the whole, however, they 

 support his general conclusion that the range has not changed essentially, 

 whatever its fluctuations may have been. 



"The present condition of the Great Plains is essentially the same as that 

 described by early travelers. The prevailing grasses are still the buffalo and 

 grama, of low habit. The immense number of buffalo in the early days and 

 later of cattle have not been sufficient to produce any marked change in the 

 character and amount of range forage upon this area. " (47) 



"To one who is familiar with the present range conditions of the arid west 

 as a whole, or any particular section of it, these statements must indicate a 



