50 BULLETIN" 1031, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



usually dry, and stock, especially breeding cows, are in the most 

 critical condition. 



SEASONAL USE OF RANCxE. 



Where grama-grass or yearlong range and tobosa-grass or summer 

 range occur together, as they do on the Jornada Eange Reserve, 

 management of the range is a comparatively simple matter. 



The chief requirement of grama-grass range, to obtain revegeta- 

 tation and maintain it at its highest productivity, is protection or 

 material reduction of grazing during the main growing season, July 

 to September, inclusive. On the other hand, tobosa-grass or summer 

 type of range, because of its growth habits and the character of the 

 soil it occupies, does not suffer materially if grazed during the time 

 it makes its main growth and must be grazed at this time if maxi- 

 mum utilization is to be secured. Division of these two classes of 

 range, using the tobosa-grass and similar types during summer and 

 fall, and holding the grama grass and similar types for use during the 

 winter and spring, will serve the several-fold purpose of securing the 

 full use of each, giving the grama-grass range the protection it 

 requires during the growing season, and insuring a supply of winter 

 and spring range for the stock. 



Figure 1 shows how the various types of range have been divided 

 into the two classes on the Jornada range reserve. Pastures 2, 3, 

 5, 10, and 12 are chiefly valuable for winter or yearlong range. Pas- 

 tures 7, 8, 9, and 13 are best adapted to summer grazing. Pasture 1 

 contains both winter and summer range, but cattle are confined 

 to the latter as much as possible by salting and closing waters on 

 the former and later in the year opening these waters and salting 

 on winter range. It was not always possible to put the fences di- 

 rectly upon the boundary between the two classes of range, espe- 

 cially where the types occurred more or less intermixed, without ex- 

 cessive fencing and water development, but the aim was to divide 

 the range as nearly as practicable in this manner. 



The plan has been to use pasture 13 as summer and fall range for 

 a herd of 600 head and pasture 10 as winter range for this same 

 herd each year. The more needj^ cows in pasture 10 during each 

 spring were then separated and placed in pasture 7, a small reserve 

 pasture. The larger breeding herd has been grazed in pasture 1 

 yearlong, with effort to confine the stock to the proper range at 

 the proper season, except that all needy cows were separated and 

 grazed in pasture 2, or one of the various smaller pastures where there 

 was reserve feed, when their condition required it. Using pasture 

 1 as yearlong range with such control of stock as was possible by 

 salting and riding has not been as satisfactory, however, as has been 



