ALTERNATION OF PASTURES. 23 



compared with the failure or poverty of the many. Such men do not stock 

 nearly up to the maximum. Owning their own ranges, and therefore not having 

 to pay exorbitant interest on the capital invested, they are content with the 

 profits obtainable from the optimum number of stock. As a result of this, they 

 not only maintain a uniform carrying capacity without deterioration, but gain 

 in other ways. Their wool is always cleaner and commands a half cent a pound 

 more than that of their neighbors, and both their mutton sheep and their 

 lambs command a higher price. " We aim," writes Mr. Clarke, " to keep no 

 more stock than the range will easily support. Better a superabundance of 

 feed than a scarcity." a 



ALTERNATION OF PASTURES. 



In many parts of the State of Washington the ranges would be 

 greatly benefited if the owner instead of having one large pasture 

 would subdivide it into a number of small ones., so that once in 

 three or four years each pasture would have a chance to rest and 

 reseed itself. This would not mean that the owner would be deprived 

 of the feed from that field, but simply that he would let the field lie 

 idle for a couple of months during the time of going to seed, and use 

 the dry feed later in the season. It would probably be necessary 

 to protect this field from heavy grazing long enough in the following 

 spring to give the young plants a chance to become so well established 

 that the stock would not pull them up. 



This method has been tried with very good success in Texas, and 

 has been found to be of great value in range restoration. Mr. J. G. 

 Smith, formerly of the Office of Grass and Forage Plant Investiga- 

 tions of the Department of Agriculture, who made a careful investi- 

 gation of the stock ranges of that State, makes the following 

 statement : 



A rest of two or three months during the growing season in early spring 

 would enable the early grasses to ripen and shed their seeds, thus perpetuating 

 the early species. After the seed had fallen, the cattle could be turned on the 

 grass for two or three months and again transferred to a fresh pasture. In 

 the same way autumn and winter pastures can be secured. Several stockmen 

 who have employed this method on a large scale for a number of years say that 

 their ranges are continually improving, in marked contrast to the deterioration 

 that had occurred through bad treatment of neighboring properties where the 

 old methods were practiced. It is also claimed that pasture land thus treated 

 will carry more head of cattle through the year and bring them out in better 

 condition than where the herd has access at all seasons of the year to all por- 

 tions of the range. & 



Later experiments to prove this point were carried on by the Office 

 of Grass and Forage Plant Investigations at Abilene, Tex., and the 

 results have shown conclusively that alternation of pastures is one 



" Bui. 12, Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, p. 43. 

 & Bui. 16, Division of Agrostology, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, p. 22. 



