CARRYING CAPACITY OP RANGES IN WESTERN U. S. 47 



covers the ground for a large part of the winter. It does bring 

 in a similar condition and that is, having some forage to be con- 

 sumed during the winter. This can be done by fencing off an 

 area or cutting down the number of animals so that enough forage 

 will be on hand to carry them through the winter. If this is not 

 done a condition will prevail which exists in this particular sec- 

 tion at present. No reserve food supply was or ever is left and 

 when a dry, cold winter comes and is followed by a late spring, 

 cattle losses are heavy. To overcome such a system, a series 

 of pastures can be put in and "rotated" like the Iowa and Illi- 

 nois farmer rotates his fields and crops. In the case of the 

 Wallowa National Forest, there were 4 classes of ranges, al- 

 though only 2 were recognized winter and summer. To these 

 could be added spring and fall. In a case of this kind the sum- 

 mer range period would last not over 2 months, while the spring 

 and fall periods would probably be the longest, depending on the 

 season. One year in eastern Oregon the season consisted of 

 2 months spring and 10 months winter. 



Character of vegetation determines the kind of stock that can 

 best use the range. For instance, sheep will eat hackberry and 

 thrive on it. Horses and cattle will barely eat it unless forced to. 

 Therefore, it would be a waste of forage to try to make cattle 

 and horses feed on hackberry range when sheep will eat it readily. 

 The same holds true of coarser grasses. Sheep are careful about 

 what they eat. They prefer tender shoots and flowers. They 

 eat grasses but do not care for coarser ones, especially when 

 they are dried or "cured." Now, cattle and horses are fond 

 of grasses and eat cured grass as readily as green. Under proper 

 conditions they do better on dried grass than on green. There- 

 fore, if there is a range that is at its best in the fall and is 

 composed of coarse grasses, it should be fed to cattle and horses 

 while green and tender it can be lightly grazed by sheep. When 

 possible, the range should be so arranged that the right class 

 of stock uses the range best suited to that class of animals. 



Under economic conditions nearby, there should be considered 

 the activities that persons living near any particular piece of range 

 are engaged in. For instance, several large fanners living next 

 a piece of range, have each several head of cattle and horses. 

 The range might be better sheep range, but these men do not 

 have enough stock to warrant moving them on to regular cat- 

 tle range, so they are put on the wrong class of range adjoin- 

 ing their ranches. Very often this makes necessary a large waste 

 of forage, for it takes more acres of sheep range to run a cow 

 than it does to run a corresponding number of sheep. Also 

 a small sheep man living in a cattle country wants his sheep to 

 range near his ranch, so he runs his sheep in the cattle range. 

 As he gets more sheep and can keep a herder, he may very likely 

 move his stock to a sheep range. 



