RANGE IMPROVEMENT. 327 



probably permit similar treatment in moister situations in the short-grass and 

 desert plains. Finally, the latter may be regarded as constituting a curiously 

 mixed type in which the two elements, winter annuals and perennial grasses, 

 occupy the same ground but become dominant at two different seasons. Since 

 grasses depend almost wholly upon the summer rainfall for their growth, such 

 a mixture is especially valuable in utilizing the annual rainfall to give the 

 maximum amount of forage. While Thornber (1910) and others have em- 

 phasized the unique value of the winter annuals in the Southwest, their im- 

 portance and the possibility of extending or developing this mixed type have 

 not been generally understood. The chief annuals possess the vigor and the 

 seed-production of weeds. Hence, the seeds germinate readily and the new 

 plants quickly become established. Like all plants, however, they can not 

 grow without rain, and their yield follows the variation in winter rainfall even 

 more closely than grasses do that of the summer. 



Forage development.— It is obvious that the utilization of hay and other 

 forage to supplement the range during winter or periods of drought reduces 

 the demand upon the range and hence helps to improve it. Fundamental 

 as this is, it is far from a general practice among stockmen. While there has 

 been utilization of native hay areas, few attempts have been made to develop 

 them. Moreover, the use of native forage plants of an emergency character 

 has been exceptional until recently, while the production of cultivated forage 

 and silage crops by the stockman has barely been begun. Smith (1899: 22) 

 was the first to emphasize the importance of the production of hay and stack 

 silage as aids to the improvement of the range. Thornber (1910:305) has 

 discussed the use of methods for developing artificial meadows and fields by 

 means of storm-water dams, but concludes that these are in general not very 

 satisfactory. However, the majority of ranches perhaps contain areas on 

 which a fair amount of native hay can be developed, or on which cultivated 

 forage can be grown by means of irrigation, use of storm-water, or by the 

 methods of dry-farming. This is especially true during the heavier rainfall 

 of the wet phase of the climatic cycle. When the value of hay and silage as 

 insurance against drought is fully realized, it will usually be possible to pro- 

 duce enough during the wet years to tide stock over drought periods. This 

 is especially true of silage, because of the long period for which it can be kept. 

 In view of the enormous difference in the production of forage crops in wet and 

 dry years, it is imperative for the ranchman to realize that his most certain 

 insurance against the disasters of drought is an adequate forage reserve. 

 While increased hay production plays a part in this, maximum production 

 of silage during the wet phase especially is much more important. Silage can 

 be kept almost indefinitely in properly constructed silos, but it would prob- 

 ably never need to be kept more than four years, since even the most serious 

 drought periods have been only three years long. With the use of the method 

 of climatic cycles to determine the approximate date and length of wet and 

 dry phases, it will be possible to develop this drought insurance into a practi- 

 cal certainty. In the case of single years, it is a much more difficult matter 

 to anticipate the probable rainfall, and during the dry phase additional insur- 

 ance can be obtained by planting such forage crops as sunflower and Russian 

 thistle. In fact, in the Southwest at least, it will be the part of wisdom to 

 plant a certain amount of these every year, against the chance that the distri- 

 bution of the rainfall mav be abnormal. 



