PASSING OF THE FEDERAL PASTURE 



best native grasses and forage plants be cul- 

 tivated, and new and improved sorts be in- 

 troduced. Thus renovated, the ranges may 

 indefinitely continue to be as fine grazing 

 land as there is in the world. Governor 

 Richards of Wyoming estimates that pas- 

 ture lands which he has leased and fenced 

 produce today 100 per cent more grass than 

 when no one had any interest in cherishing 

 them. There is voluminous testimony to 

 the same effect. 



A few years since, after a severe drouth, 

 one rancher plowed fire-guard strips, each 

 4 or 5 feet wide, across his land every 40 or 

 50 yards. Fortunately the range was not 

 burned. Early in the fall millions of 

 needles from the needle grass had blown 

 over the pasture and planted themselves in 

 the broken ground. Other grass seeds had 

 also caught there. Next summer those fire- 

 guard ribbons were thickly seeded with fine 

 grasses. From these beds the spaces between 

 the ribbons were reseeded, so that the sec- 

 ond summer the entire range had markedly 

 improved. 



53 



