76 NATURAL RESEEDING AND MAINTENANCE 



however, are usually sold before the forage matures. Further- 

 more, if range is grazed early in the season and recropped in the 

 fall, uneasiness is usually caused in stock, in so far as there is an 

 insufficiency of the succulent feed which they seek to satisfy the 

 appetite. 



In the light of the intensive studies in the Blue Mountains of 

 Oregon, the author summarizes the question of palatability as 

 follows:^ 



" Nearly all the leading range plants, particularly the grasses, 

 are grazed during the autumn with rehsh. It can not be said, 

 however, that they are eaten with the same gusto after seed 

 maturity as when they are growing vigorously. It was found 

 that the first time a band of sheep passed over a matured range 

 of medium density only about half of the forage crop was grazed 

 off. Not until the range was grazed a second or third time was 

 the crop entirely consumed. The vegetation on similar ranges 

 grazed a month earlier was in most cases entirely consumed the 

 first time the stock passed over it. On ranges grazed after seed 

 maturity the naked flower stalks, rising from leafless tufts of 

 bunchgrass, remained after the stock had passed over them, but 

 on ranges grazed when the forage was succulent and tender no 

 flower stalks were visible after the passage of the stock. No 

 appreciable amount of herbage remained on either area." 



Weakened vegetation, when protected by deferred grazing, 

 recovers its vitaHty quite as rapidly as when the lands are closed 

 to grazing the year through. This protection results in a forage 

 yield practically as large from the existing vegetation as on year- 

 long protected lands, and in the production of a seed crop quite 

 as satisfactory. 



Advantages of Deferred Grazing. — One of the chief advan- 

 tages of the deferred system of grazing is that no forage is lost 

 while the lands are being reseeded. Stock are not permitted to 

 crop the reseeding area until after seed maturity; but, if the 

 pasture has not been overgrazed, enough feed is available on the 



' Sampson, Arthur W., "Natural Revegetation of Range Lands Based upon 

 Growth Requirements and Life History of the Vegetation." U. S. Dept. of Agr., 

 Jour, of Agr. Research, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 144, 145, 1914. 



