CERTAIN DESERT PLANTS AS EMERGENCY STOCK FEED. 25 



diminished production the feed left on the range is not only scanty, 

 but is of the very poorest quality. If the range is fully stocked 

 when the dry years come (as is usually the case, since the previous 

 years have generally been years of more than average production), 

 it is absolutely necessary to do one of three things — reduce the num- 

 ber of animals on the area, feed them some kind of material they can 

 not get for themselves, or let some of them die of starvation. The 

 amount of reduction necessary is very difficult to determine, and the 

 necessity for doing it usually is recognized only after the stock com- 

 mence to go off in quality and therefore in selling value. Feeding the 

 stock maintains or improves their quality and numbers, and prevents 

 forced selling, but cuts into the net receipts. However, it is much 

 the least of the three evils, and while the expense involved is nearly 

 always greater the longer and more widely distributed the drought 

 may be, the increased selling prices which usually accompany such 

 conditions compensate more or less for the increase in expense 



Range stockmen who can obtain at a reasonable price a concen- 

 trated feed like cottonseed cake that contains a high percentage of 

 protein, and who have their ranges fenced, have been feeding for a 

 number of years. The principal factor which has prevented New 

 Mexico and Arizona cattlemen from following in the way others have 

 led is their lack of legal control of their range lands. It is a common 

 custom in the open-range country to water all the animals that come 

 to the watering places. But it would be very difficult to feed one's 

 own stock and keep stock of other brands away from the feed as long 

 as they run together on the range. In particular cases stock of differ- 

 ent owners have been and are now being fed together just as they are 

 now watered, but adjustments are hard to make and are apt to lead 

 to misunderstandings, especially where tempers and confidence are 

 already strained. 



No one advance step could be taken which would benefit this 

 business so much as some legislation that would give the south- 

 western stockman legalized control of the land he uses and thereby 

 allow him to fence his range. 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS. 



It has been demonstrated by trial on a large scale that several 

 desert shrubs, some of which have not been used until recently, are 

 valuable emergency feed for range cattle and sheep in times of ex- 

 treme drought, if properly prepared. 



The preparation consists of chopping or shredding the stems and 

 leaves of these plants by machines that have recently been designed 

 and produced. Hand chopping of the material is possible, but it is 

 slow and laborious and the product is not very satisfactory. The 

 machine-chopped material is satisfactory in eveiy way. 



