II 



all his stock. This is just as possible as it is to find a patent 

 medicine at one dollar per bottle which will really cure all 

 diseases. It is almost always true that the plants best suited to 

 any range are the ones which already grow there or which used 

 to grow there. Of course there may be better ones growing in 

 other parts of America, or in other countries in nearly the same 

 kind of soil and climate; but it is usually true that any stock 

 range will be benefited most quickly and most permanently by 

 reseeding it with the best native plants and grasses. This is true 

 because plants which have occupied the same territory for years, 

 perhaps for centuries, have become perfectly adapted to the soil 

 and the climate of the region where they grow r . 



The native plants may be restored in part by resting every 

 year certain parts of the range, thus allowing the forage plants to 

 produce seed. This method could be made far more successful, if 

 on the rested lands seed of the right kind could be sown arti- 

 ficially. The seed, however, is hard to obtain and it is not 

 always easy to decide which plants are really the best ones for 

 this purpose. 



For artificial sowing a good forage plant should have the 

 following qualities: It should, above all, be hardy and nutri- 

 tious. It should be deep-rooted. It should be well suited to the 

 soil and climate in which it is to grow, and it should produce 

 abundantly seed of such a character that it can be easily collected 

 and sown. The leaves and stems should, of course, be full of 

 those substances which go to make fat, muscle and bone in good 

 sheep and cattle. Out of the hundreds of kinds of plants growing 

 on the ranges, there are only a few which combine all these 

 various qualities of hardiness and nutrition. The experiment 

 stations may very profitably co-operate with the stockmen in 

 hunting for these few good ones and in gathering their seed, 

 testing it and sowing it. 



Much useful work along these lines has already been done 

 by the experiment stations in several of the western States. In 

 investigations of this kind station men and stockmen can well 

 co-operate under the direction of the Department of Agriculture 

 at Washington. 



In Nevada these co-operative experiments could best be con- 



