2 22 BURNING OF PASTURE LANDS 



the essential plant- food elements in the soil and the physical 

 and chemical requirements of growing vegetation. It is true 

 that close grazing year after year, as compared with nonuse of 

 the lands, also tends to reduce somewhat the elements that would 

 be returned to the soil; but this is largely ofifset by the fertilizing 

 value of the manure. From 65 to 80 per cent of the nitrogen, 

 phosphoric acid, and potash contained in the forage consumed 

 is returned to the land in this form.^ Accordingly, if the forage 

 stand is properly maintained, the soil constituents essential to 

 the proper development of plant growth are always present. 



Effect of Burning Grasslands. — Some who advocate the 

 burning of grasslands concede the point that the productivity 

 of the soil cannot be maintained if frequent burning is practiced, 

 yet they insist that the present stand of perennial grasses may be 

 maintained indefinitely. The facts do not bear out this con- 

 tention. To say that a change takes place in the productive 

 capacity of the soil but not in the surface cover is contrary to 

 some of the most widely tested laws of plant succession and de- 

 velopment known to the scientist as well as to the observing 

 practical stockman. 



Griffiths,- in a discussion of the efTect of burning in the Great 

 Basin region, says: " Fire has a direct influence upon the con- 

 dition of the feed. Burning is as destructive to the grass of the 

 range as to the trees of the forest." 



Burning in the East, Middle West, and Far West. — Observa- 

 tions made in various investigations in the East, the middle 

 West, and the far West have convinced the writer that the effect 

 of burning is practically as destructive to the forage cover as to 

 the soil — that the two are virtually inseparable. As a rule, 

 the burning of grasslands is done in the fall or early spring when 

 the vegetation is quite inflammable. Over most of the area the 

 forage cures well on the ground so that it has considerable value 

 as feed throughout the winter. Therefore, the loss of the forage 



1 Warren, G. F., "Farm Management," pp. 196-198. The Macmillan Co., 

 N. Y., 1913. 



- Griffiths, David, "Forage Conditions on the Northern Border of the Great 

 Basin." U. S. Dept. of Agr., Bur. of Plant Ind., Bui. 15, p. 31, 1902. 



