ESSENTIALS OF A GRAZING POLICY. 335 



cycle be recognized, and that its operation be anticipated and modified in such 

 a way as to stabilize production. In existing practice, a series of wet years is 

 a period of voluntary expansion, and a drought period one of involuntary 

 contraction. With the increasing probability of forecasting wet and dry 

 phases, the ranchman should make his plans accordingly. Expansion must 

 still be the rule for wet phases, and contraction for dry ones, but the change 

 from one to the other must be definitely anticipated and prepared for. This 

 is particularly true of the critical change from expansion to contraction, but 

 it is also true in a large measure for the reverse process. 



Most of the essentials of a contraction-expansion system have already been 

 discussed under range improvement. It is imperative to have the largest 

 possible amount of insurance against drought in the form of rotation grazing 

 and reserve pastures, and of water development. Even greater possibilities 

 of adjustment are afforded by the management of the herd to secure necessary 

 contraction and desirable expansion. On the Jornada Reserve this has been 

 obtained by maintaining the number of steers at about one-third the total of 

 the herd, but increasing the number in good years and decreasing it in bad 

 years as the range warrants or demands (Jardine and Hurtt, 1917:31). 

 Still greater elasticity is provided where it is possible to employ mixed graz- 

 ing, running cattle and sheep together, or cattle, sheep, and goats. Mixed 

 grazing not only permits readier adjustment to climatic conditions, but also 

 serves in some measure as insurance against unfavorable market conditions. 



Ranch management surveys. — The task of placing the grazing industry upon 

 a sound economic and social basis is not solved until costs of production can 

 be determined. Until this is done and net income ascertained, it is impossible 

 to know the efficiency of any particular ranch in either economic or social 

 terms. It is felt that the only proper objective of any productive system is 

 to secure an equitable balance between the needs of the producer and the 

 consumer. Such a balance is possible only when the actual cost of production 

 is known, so that its relation to the proper cost can be determined. In its 

 present condition the stock industry of the West is little better than a game 

 of chance, in which both the stockman and the public are regularly losers. 

 It can be converted into a productive business that does its full duty to the 

 individual and the nation only by means of proper land legislation, adequate 

 methods of range improvement, and by ranch management surveys, which 

 will disclose the exact status of each ranch as a productive unit. Such sur- 

 veys may well serve to usher in a period of cooperation in ranching, which will 

 make possible great improvements in range and herd management as well as 

 in marketing and distribution. They would probably lead also to the stabili- 

 zation of land values and the reduction of interest rates, and to the production 

 of social values such as rarely obtain at present. 



