28 BULLETIN 1001, IT. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



SOME CONSEQUENCES OF THE OPEN-RANGE METHOD OF STOCK 



RAISING. 



An open-range system of management of the arid grazing lands 

 of the West has been inevitable, in view of the natural conditions of 

 the region and the Government land policy which has been followed. 

 Only in a few localities has it been possible to avoid this system and 

 its consequences. 



Compulsory overstocking. — The most far-reaching effect of the 

 open-range system is that it compels men to overstock their ranges 

 all the time. A properly adjusted system of land tenure would tend 

 to the automatic removal of the evils which arise from this practice. 

 With laws as they are, possession of any unfenced grazing range 

 containing Government land is to-day held by occupancy only. If 

 a stockman removes some of his stock because he knows there is 

 insufficient feed on the range to supply all the animals till the next 

 growing season, he thereby merely invites some one else to bring 

 stock in and take the feed that has been saved. By this process he 

 loses part of his range and does not avoid the loss of stock that will 

 come later. Yet all stockmen who have large investments and are 

 permanently located in the open-range country recognize these 

 losses as one of the undesirable features of the business and charge 

 up such recurrent losses as a part of the expense of running such a 

 business. 



The results of continued overgrazing, in order of occurrence, are 

 (1) reduction of the quantity of the most palatable feed, (2) extermi- 

 nation of the best forage and its replacement by inferior kinds, and 

 (3) continuance of this process till all edible plants are gone and 

 the ground is bare or covered only with unpalatable weeds. Reduc- 

 tion in the number of plants increases erosive effects and hastens 

 the later stages of denudation. The final stage is often bare rock 

 or gravelly arroyo. 



On an overgrazed range there is never much, if any, reserve feed, 

 so that whenever a drought occurs the stock must be taken off very 

 soon or in a short time they begin to show signs of insufficient feed. 

 Such forced removals are nearly always undesirable, because prices 

 are likely to fall when there is no alternative but to throw large 

 numbers of animals on the market. With the rainfall as uncertain 

 as it is in the arid grazing region, a system of management which 

 does not provide for a supply of feed sufficient to carry the stock 

 over at least one season of below-normal production is very unde- 

 sirable. Yet an open-range system of management makes this 

 necessary conservation of range feed practically impossible. 



Premature grazing. — On an open range it is the common practice 

 to turn the stock onto patches of young growing feed before the 

 plants have had time to do more than get well started. If one 



