36 BULLETIN 211, TJ. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGBICULTTJBE. 



and a still smaller acreage is cultivated) the important cultivated 

 crops are forage crops, much of which will not admit of shipment, 

 on account of their bulk as compared with their value. They must, 

 therefore, be used near the place of production. Any concentrated 

 feeds produced may seek an outside market, and the production of 

 such feed within the State, where a large quantity of such feed should 

 be used to carry animals over the periods of scarcity, is advantageous 

 in many ways. The producers need a market; the stockmen need 

 cheap feed; the railroads need the haul; the State needs the indus- 

 tries; and the country needs the meat. 



There is little doubt that the areas into which the homesteaders 

 have been coming for some time, and which thereby have produced 

 much less meat for a number of years, will in the end produce much 

 more than they originally did, unless some marked improvement is 

 made in agricultural operations with a limited supply of water. 

 Kafir, milo, or some other sorghum and the silo, with stock raising 

 or dairying, seem to be one solution of the problem of living in these 

 regions. 'The experience of the stockmen in other States indicates 

 that cattlemen and sheepmen alike can very well afford to feed grain 

 to their stock during periods of shortage of range feed. 



Sheepmen are accustomed to assume that all of these generaliza- 

 tions that apply so patently to cattle do not affect their business. 

 But this is not correct. It has been shown by experiment x that 

 even in the heart of the forest in the high mountains, where predatory 

 animals are most numerous and active, half of a band of sheep pro- 

 tected by a fence and a hunter with dogs produced more mutton 

 and more wool and left the pasture in better shape than the other 

 half of the band under the ordinary care given by herding. Nor is 

 this all. 



Many of the flockmasters of southwestern Texas are building 

 fences that, with the aid of proper dogs, will protect their sheep 

 from coyotes and wolves. This is being done because the herders 

 of the region are becoming less reliable and at the same time more 

 expensive. When that region is once cut up by fences into pastures 

 of a few sections each, the coyotes and wolves can be exterminated. 

 The cost of construction and maintenance of the fence and of keeping 

 down the jack rabbits is the main expense which must be met in 

 lieu of the wages and subsistence of the herders and camp tenders 

 necessary when the sheep are handled on an open range; and the 

 increased carrying capacity of the range, the increased amount and 

 quality of the wool, and the increased quantity of mutton produced 

 must be taken into account when comparisons are made. 



1 Jardine, J. T., and Coville, F. V. Preliminary report on grazing experiments in a coyote-proof pasture. 

 TJ. S. Dept. Agr., Forest Serv. Che. 156, 32 p., 2 fig. 190S. 



