12 BULLETIN U, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



tected in rne same way during the second ana, if necessary, subse- 

 quent seasons, or until the new plants have been securely established ; 

 (4) when the area has been thoroughly reseeded, it is grazed early 

 in the season and a second area, of sufficient size to accommodate the 

 stock from the time of the ripening of the seed to the end of the 

 grazing season, is protected until the forage has matured; (5) this 

 method of alternating late grazing from one area to another is con- 

 tinued not only during the period required for the restocking of the 

 lands, but even after the areas have been fully revegetated. It has 

 been found both from the experiments and from practical applica- 

 tion in range management that weakened vegetation thus protected 

 recovers its vitality quite as readily as when the land is closed to 

 grazing the entire year. The amount of forage produced was the 

 same, and the flower stalks were sent up and seed matured at the 

 same time on deferred-grazed and yearlong-protected lands. This 

 point is further substantiated from results obtained from clipping 

 matured forage and protecting it throughout the year — the vigor of 

 the vegetation being rapidly restored and equally well maintained in 

 both cases. 



One of the greatest advantages of the deferred system of grazing is 

 that the forage may be fully utilized while the lands are being re- 

 seeded. Though the range is not available for grazing until after seed 

 maturity, the herbage, while not succulent at that time, is eaten with 

 relish. Stock are not in need of succulent food in the latter part of 

 the season, since a small milk flow is then sufficient for the lambs. 

 Where deferred grazing has been thoroughly tried, sheep have been 

 found to scatter more widely over the land than when the herbage 

 was succulent, but practically all the valuable forage plants were 

 closely cropped. Lambs as well as dry sheep made satisfactory 

 gains, and the fat was of a solid, substantial nature. 



The nutritive value of the forage in the autumn, as shown by the 

 condition of the stock, is further proved by a chemical analysis made 

 of the herbage. For example, the leaf blades of mountain bunch- 

 grass after maturity contain about twice as much nitrogen, or bone 

 and muscle building material, and nearly the same amount of fat, as 

 well-cured timothy hay, while the crude fiber, or indigestible mate- 

 rial, is appreciably less than in timothy. 



Perhaps the main advantage of deferred grazing, however, is that 

 it plants the seed* which is so essential to reproduction. On an area 

 grazed after seed maturity there were found seedlings of all im- 

 portant forage plants; on an adjoining yearlong-protected area only 

 such species as white foxtail (Sitanion velutinum), the seeds of 

 which have stiff barbs, were reproducing. -Wherever enough plants 

 were left on a deferred-grazed area to produce the necessary seed, no 

 matter what its size and character, seecllings were in evidence. In 



