TENURE AND USE OF ARID GRAZING LANDS. 37 



organization and better managerial practices. The experience of the 

 stockmen of western Texas during the recent drought demonstrates 

 that it is easily possible to overstock fenced ranges. But fenced 

 ranges render possible many improvements in organization and prac- 

 tice that are impossible on an open range, thus eliminating or at least 

 minimizing the disadvantages previously discussed. (See bibliog- 

 raphy, sec. 10.) 



Increase in quantity and quality of feed. — -Probably the first and 

 most important effect of control would be a marked increase in the 

 quantity of available forage. This has been the almost universal 

 experience upon ranges that have been inclosed. (See bibliography, 

 sec. 7.) 



Besides the increase in the total amount of feed produced on the 

 range, the fence also makes possible the maintenance or improvement 

 of the quality of the range feed. All that is necessary to bring about 

 this result is to allow the plants to go to seed at frequent intervals. 

 Deferred grazing, as this practice is called, and rotation of pastures 

 result in more feed and better feed [82], an assured supply of feed on 

 the ground all the time, a reduced run-off, and the consequent better 

 utilization of the water that falls. 



It is upon such fundamentals as these that the prophesy of marked 

 increase in production on controlled ranges rests, especially when 

 taken together with an increase in the percentage of young produced. 

 Such prophesies are not mere statements of theoretical possibilities; 

 they have been convincingly fulfilled wherever the system has been 

 carried out. 



Introduction of valuable plants. — The improvement of the grazing 

 capacity which may be expected to occur automatically upon a well 

 managed controlled range is but the beginning of the total ultimate 

 increase in feed which may be expected. There are numerous ways 

 in which this increase may be brought about. Living now upon the 

 ranges may be found certain kinds of plants that are better adapted 

 to the environment than others, and which are at the same time 

 better adapted to grazing uses. Individual plants of a given species 

 possess variations that are economically valuable. Such plants, by 

 proper treatment, may be made the dominant forage on a range, 

 thereby considerably improving its grazing capacity. Shrubby plants 

 of known value are very desirable on parts of the winter ranges, 

 especially when such ranges are occasionally covered by heavy snow. 

 There are forage plants which have not yet been tried out that will 

 increase the forage output o£ much of such land. Little has been 

 done toward such improvement of the range feed, and there is very 

 little incentive for efforts of this kind, because as long as the stock- 

 men have no control over the land which they use none of them can 

 afford to make experiments. 





