72 NATURAL RESEEDING AND MAINTENANCE 



grazing may be extensive. Especially is this true where the 

 stand has previously been weakened as a result of drought, where 

 cattle are not properly distributed, or where a band of sheep is 

 too closely herded or handled excessively by dogs. The time 

 at which the reseeding area is grazed, however, is probably the 

 primary factor in the destiny of the seedling stand. A discussion 

 of this point naturally comes in a consideration of the different 

 methods of grazing as related to reseeding. 



GRAZING SYSTEMS AND FORAGE PRODUCTION 



If the growth requirements of the principal forage plants, as 

 well as the time when the forage is needed for grazing, are taken 

 into account, it becomes evident that the entire pasture can not 

 be set aside for reseeding in a single year. Grazing as generally 

 practiced in the West may be divided into three more or less 

 distinct systems: (i) Yearlong or season-long grazing year after 

 year; (2) yearlong grazing, with an occasional total exclusion of 

 stock during the entire year with a view to securing forage repro- 

 duction; and (3) deferred grazing, or a rotation in the time of 

 using each portion of the range, the plants on one portion being 

 allowed to mature their seed each year before the stock is admit- 

 ted, and the stock being made to assist forage reproduction by 

 trampling in the seed. These systems will be briefly discussed 

 with a view to outlining a grazing plan which, as a result of many 

 years of practical application, can be recommended as economical 

 and effective in rejuvenating the average depleted native pasture. 



Yearlong Grazing. — On much of the public domain, and not 

 infrequently on privately owned pastures, the stock is admitted 

 as soon as the first vestige of green appears in the spring. 

 Often the lands are so "heavily stocked that the forage is 

 kept gnawed down throughout the season. The results to the 

 existing vegetation are comparable to the results of the monthly 

 clipping experiments cited. In addition, however, the plant 

 roots are badly damaged by trampling, and the soil is put in 

 poor physical tilth because of heavy packing. Again, as in the 

 clipping experiments, the desirable vegetation is greatly weakened 

 or thinned out; and, because of the entire lack of seed production 



