28 BULLETIN 615,, U. S. DEPARTMENT or AGRICULTURE. 



AVOIDANCE OF TOO EARLY GRAZING. 



One phase of mismanagement which is often overlooked by the 

 stockman and which is responsible for serious destruction of the vege- 

 tation, is that of permitting stock on the range too early in the 

 spring, when the herbage is very young and succulent, and when the 

 soil is well-nigh saturated with moisture. A week to 10 days after 

 growth starts in the spring the forage has very little " substance " 

 and is rather deficient in sugars and protein as compared with forage 

 which has been growing twice as long. At no time in the season is it 

 more essential that a plant be permitted to develop its leafage, which 

 is the laboratory for the production of food, than early in the spring. 

 A few days' delay in the- time of grazing following the inception of 

 growth will not only insure the production of a much larger forage 

 crop for that particular season but in subsequent seasons as well, and 

 the herbage will have much more strength and fattening qualities. 

 Then, too, the bad effects of trampling over the loose, wet soil is 

 largely avoided and the exposure of the roots and subsequent drying 

 out of a large proportion of seedling forage plants is prevented. 



THE PRACTICE OF DEFERRED AND ROTATION GRAZING. 



In the case of virgin range lands there will be no difficulty in main- 

 taining indefinitely the vegetative cover provided the lands are not 

 grazed beyond their actual carrying capacity and too early in the 

 spring. But where the range has already been overgrazed and the 

 original ground cover considerably thinned out, but not all of the 

 seed plants destroyed, merely keeping the number of stock down to 

 the estimated carrying capacity and preventing too early spring 

 grazing are not in themselves effective means of reestablishing the 

 desired vegetative stand. In such instances deferred and rotation 

 grazing must be applied. 



In applying the deferred system of grazing, such portion of the 

 range as is consistent with the welfare of the range as a whole is re- 

 served for cropping until after the maturity of the seed of the main 

 forage species. Upon the maturity of the seed the range is grazed 

 closely, but not destructively, by the stock allotted to the lands. The 

 following year, owing to the large proportion of seedlings de- 

 stroyed, especially on areas grazed early in the season, the forage 

 is not to be cropped until another season's seed has been produced. 

 If, after the production of two seed crops of the choice native forage 

 species, an ample number of seedling plants have been established, 

 a second area in need of seeding is selected and the tract upon which 

 grazing was previously deferred is then grazed before seed maturity. 

 This same plan is continued season after season, alternating the de- 



