RANGE AND PASTURE 

 MANAGEMENT 



CHAPTER I 



PASTURE LANDS AND GRAZING CONTROL IN THE 

 UNITED STATES 



The grazing animals of the ranches and farms may well be 

 regarded as living factories that are continuously manufacturing 

 flesh, leather, wool, mohair, motive power, and numerous other 

 valuable products for the benefit of man. The machinery of 

 this vast factory is run by " vegetational fuel," which, in general, 

 can not be directly utilized as food by man. Having this pro- 

 digious livestock manufactory, we do not, hke Nebuchadnezzar 

 of old, have to subsist on grass ourselves; but we do eat it 

 by proxy, for meat constitutes no unimportant part of our 

 diet. The meat-eating habit will doubtless continue as long as 

 eating remains necessary. Substitutes for meat are not popular 

 and probably never will be. 



The cellular structure of he body is composed largely of 

 nitrogenous materials; hence foods containing an ample supply 

 of nitrogen are an essential part of the diet. Meats are espe- 

 cially rich in nitrogenous substances, and in a form much more 

 readily digested than the forms in which nitrogen is contained 

 in cereals and vegetables. In the latter, as in string beans and 

 other vegetable substitutes for meat, the nitrogenous materials 

 are tied up to such an extent in cellulose, an indigestible sub- 

 stance, that the tissues of the body cannot be suppHed with the 

 nitrogen needed. Meat, therefore, forms an important part of 

 the diet of all advanced nations. 



3 



