it's still there, same numter of acres. But I've seen too many acres of 

 go-back rangeland where a short try at dryland farming eroded off a thin 

 layer of topsoil — often exposing a white, now solid, caliche layer — 

 where range production will be far below surrounding land for at least a 

 century. 



Rangemen are, of course, especially sensitive to breaking of rangeland 

 for marginal wheat production. In fact, it was in Montana on that 100 mile 

 stretch between Fort Peck dam and the Yellowstone near Terry that we coined 

 a medical name for this malady. We tenned it Triticosus — after Triticum , 

 the Latin name for wheat. We found it was caused by traveling through range- 

 land areas intended for chancey wheat production; where the land plainly 

 could not sustain cultivated agriculture through generations. We agreed that 

 the symptoms of triticosus included a tendency to depress the accelerator 

 pedal, to stare straight ahead, to lapse into gloomy silence, and, in some, 

 a slight flushing of the face. Epidemics occur periodically among rangemen 

 and seem to be correlated with variables such as series of wet years, wheat 

 prices, federal crop-acreage programs, and rates of land taxation where these 

 are not based on land-use capability, tract by tract (county by county won't 

 get it). 



This is not to belittle the importance of wheat production. Montanans 

 will be interested in knowing that o\n: family regularly eats Montana wheat 

 in Texas. It's called Wheat Berry bread. The wrappers say, "A delicious 

 wheat bread made from wheat grown in the early springtime in the rich soil 

 of the plains of Montana, ground fresh daily." I don't know how it's done; 

 but this natioral food with no preservatives is continuously available at 

 several chain groceries, in our town of under 50,000, from the Orowheat 

 Baking Co. in San Francisco. The 1^ lb. loaves sell for less than Roman 

 Meal bread on a weight basis. I add — no financial interest — no endorse- 

 ment intended. 



Rangeland, due to its physical nature, will always be at the frontier 

 of land tillage to entice fairaers. And it is in the dryland wheat country 

 where they now go too far — in Russia as well as here. Conversion of range- 

 land to cropland started with the cornfields of Iowa and Illinois. The 1862, 

 and first. Yearbook of Agriculture, refers to fine native range south of 



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