42 BULLETIN 790, EL S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Springs and seeps which naturally furnish water only in small 

 puddles or cow tracks will furnish clean water for a number of cattle 

 if the supply is developed and troughs installed. On ranges of the 

 Southwest a large part of the water supply is furnished by storage 

 tanks which collect and store surface run-off. This method of water 

 development can be resorted to in other localities. Also, wells 500 

 feet deep or more, equipped with windmills and engines for pump- 

 ing, are used successfully on large areas of range. In some places 

 water for midsummer is obtained by collecting into storage tanks 

 early in the season water from small meadow areas which dry up in 

 midsummer. Range is valuable. It can net be used by cattle with- 

 out water. It should not be considered permanently unusable until 

 exhaustive consideration has been given to possible ways of water 

 development. Farmers' Bulletin 592 x discusses methods of develop- 

 ing water for stock under range conditions. 



FENCES. 



Very often fences are the most effective and most economical 

 means of controlling cattle on the range. In fencing, however, the 

 first consideration should be given to fences to provide control which 

 is vital to the range as a whole. The importance of such control, 

 first at the boundary of a National Forest and then at the boundary 

 of smaller natural range units, has been emphasized. Generally, 

 control at these places, by fences if necessary, should come first, so 

 as to control the numbers of cattle and time of grazing on the Forest, 

 as a whole, and on the natural unit of management. "With this con- 

 trol established, interior fence control should proceed according to 

 a well-developed plan for the management of the cattle within the 

 natural unit. 



The important objects of fences within the unit are: To make pos- 

 sible seasonal grazing and deferred and rotation grazing, as out- 

 lined in the paragraphs on Grazing Periods and Natural Reseeding ; 

 segregation of breeding stock from dry stock; protection of cattle 

 from poisoning: protection of areas of watershed, timber growth, or 

 recreation areas from grazing; holding pastures for stock during a 

 round-up ; reserving pastures for saddle stock ; and economy in han- 

 dling the stock and in supervision of grazing. These possible needs 

 should be considered in working out the fencing plan for each unit. 

 Protection and the best use of the range resources should be given 

 first consideration. 



Several years ago a general study was made to ascertain the eco- 

 nomic value of stock fences then in existence on the National Forests. 

 Each of MS fences was reported on. The average estimate of in- 



1 Barnes, Will C, Stock Watering Places on Western Grazing Lands, U. S. Department 

 of Agriculture, Farmers' Bui. 592, 1914. 



