64 



NATUR.\L RESEEDING AND MAINTExNANCE 



Experiment Station in the Wasatch Mountains in central Utah.^ 

 Plots harvested once each season, just before seed maturity, 

 yielded more than five times as much air-dry forage as those 

 from which the leafage was removed four times each season. 



Fig. 17. — THE STORY OF REPEATED GRAZING YEAR AFTER YEAR. 

 Left. — Thin slice cut across an active root of larkspur. The numerous spherical bodies scattered 

 throughout the tissues are starch grains, an important plant food. The plant had not been 

 molested in any way. It was growing vigorously and was in a normal, healthy condition 

 when the examination was made. Right. — Cross section of a larkspur root similar to that shown 

 on the left. Because the leafage was cut oflF three times the first year and two times the second 

 year the root section contains only a few small grains of starch, .^t the end of the second year 

 of cutting the plant died from starvation. Repeated grazing year after year accomplishes ex- 

 actly this result. 



Likewise where two cuttings were made late in the season, the 

 yield was practically the same as where the herbage was removed 

 once, but many times greater than where the plots were harvested 

 four times. It was significant, too, that at the end of the third 

 year approximately 85 per cent of the plants harvested four 

 times had died. They literally starved to death (Figs. 18 and 

 19). 



' For a more detailed consideration of this subject, see Sampson, Arthur W., 

 "Livestock Husbandry on Range and Pasture." 



