Grazing Investigations on Our National Forests 17 



forage. No less than forty species were found to have special 

 value at one time or other during the season. It was learned 

 that mountain bunchgrass (Festuca ririditla) was by far the 

 most valuable forage plant in the Wallowa (Blue) Mountains, 

 where it occurs at from 6,500 to 8,500 feet elevation, mainly 

 in open parks and bald buttes. Like the majority of the for- 

 age species, mountain bunchgrass in 1907 and subsequent sea- 

 sons completed putting forth its flower stalks in most situa- 

 tions by August 15, >and the seed crop was, for the most part, 

 matured and dispersed during the last week in August and 

 the first week in September. 



During the season of 1907 the most valuable information 

 secured in the initiation of natural reseeding was the fol- 

 lowing : 



1. After the main seed crop had ripened there remained 

 one-fifth of the summer grazing season. 



2. Mountain bunchgrass and the majority of the pre- 

 eminent forage plants are relished by sheep after the seeds 

 have dropped and the herbage is partly air-cured. 



Based upon this and additional facts, a definite plan for 

 an experiment in natural reseeding was drawn up and inaug- 

 urated in 1908. The main plans of the experiment were: 

 (1) on certain sheep ranges in need of reseeding and occupied 

 by a single band of sheep, a portion of the range which 

 normally supported the band for one-fifth of the summer 

 season was to be closed to grazing until the seed crop had 

 ripened; (2) that the areas and their exact boundaries were 

 to be decided upon by the Forest officers in charge in con- 

 sultation with the stockmen to whom the allotment had been 

 assigned; (3) that when the seed crop was matured the range 

 would be moderately grazed at any time during the remainder 

 of the season; and (4) that the same areas should be closed 

 to sheep on the following year in order to give the seedlings 

 a good opportunity to develop a strong enough root system 

 to withstand trampling, and also to permit a second seed 

 crop to be developed and disseminated if the first year's seed- 

 ing was unsuccessful. In the season of 1908 a good seed crop 

 was produced and the experiment was successfully carried out 

 as planned. 



A study of the condition of the vegetation on ranges 



