THE SMALLER GRASSESSTRAW HAY-MAKING 217 



as best they may until winter we show that all the barbaric blood has 

 not yet been eliminated from our veins. If the summer rains are timely 

 and abundant the cattle are well nourished on these pastures ; if drought 

 prevails they suffer for food as surely, and often as severely, as did the 

 live stock of England in winter, years ago. To suffering from scant feed 

 there is added the heat of "dog days'* and the ever-present annoyance 

 of blood-sucking flies. Our stockmen will never be worthy of their call- 

 ing, nor their flocks and herds yield their best returns, until ample pro- 

 vision is made against drought-ruined pastures in summer. 



The decline in yield of permanent pastures is often attributed to over 

 grazing. This is undoubtedly a most important cause of the depletion 

 of some of the western ranges, but heavy grazing is not necessarily in- 

 jurious to pastures in humid regions. Carrier and Oakley of the Virginia 

 Station 40 found in a 5-year test that bluegrass pastures heavily grazed 

 were more productive than those lightly grazed, as weeds were prevented 

 from encroaching. Testing the effect of the often-recommended system 

 of alternate grazing of pastures, they found insufficient increase in yield, 

 measured by the gains made by the steers, to justify the extra expense. 

 In America we have not begun to utilize our pastures as is done in 

 Europe, where stock is still grazed on land worth several hundred dollars 

 an acre. By proper fertilization, reseeding with suitable mixtures of 

 grasses and clovers, and keeping down brush and weeds the productivity 

 of pastures may be both greatly and profitably increased. 



Because of over-stocking and over-grazing under the system of free 

 and unrestricted grazing, the carrying capacity of many of the western 

 ranges has been seriously reduced. The day of the " all-year-round " 

 open range is now almost past, and in its place has come a system under 

 which, by the use of supplemental feed for periods of summer drought or 

 winter storm, the natural forage is utilized much more wisely than be- 

 fore. With ranges thus handled the enormous losses of cattle and sheep 

 from starvation, which were all too common in the old range days, are 

 prevented. The improvement under a rational system of grazing has 

 been demonstrated on the grazing areas under the control of the United 

 States Forest Service 41 and by the studies of Thornber and Griffith at 

 the Arizona Station. 42 Fencing or otherwise restricting the range, the 

 development of convenient water supplies, the conservation of the range 

 during periods of seed ripening and germination, and the prevention of 

 soil erosion have greatly increased the carrying capacity of such areas. 

 Thornber cites an instance where, 6 years after fencing, a range of over 

 25 square miles carried nearly twice as many cattle as before fencing. 

 The animals also kept in excellent condition thruout the year, while 

 formerly they lost weight rapidly during the winter and occasionally 

 some died from shortage of feed. 



*>Va. Bui. 204. "Barnes, Western Grazing Grounds. ^Ariz. Bui. 65. 



