18 RANGE MANAGEMENT IN THE STATE OF WASHINGTON. 



of feed, but the carrying capacity of these places has been greatly 

 reduced by the continual tramping of stock and consequent packing 

 of the ground. On the hillsides surrounding these meadow-, where 

 I he soil is much lighter, the herbage has in many places been killed. 

 This, if protected and given an opportunity, will quickly return. 

 The worst feature in this restoration process is that many weeds 

 which have been brought in by the sheep, of absolutely no value for 

 grazing purposes — not even the sheep will eat them — are given an 

 equal chance with the good forage plants. 



In many places, some of them covering large areas, the process of 

 restoration can be very greatly hastened by reseeding. Xot only can 

 the^e area:- be brought back to their original carrying capacity by 

 receding, but it i> the firm belief of the writer that in many instances 

 their carrying capacity can actually be made much greater than ever 

 (see PL I. rig-. 1 and 2). This is especially true of the mountain 

 meadows. In the majority of ca>es the reseeding can be done at a 

 very small cost, varying from 75 cent:- to $2 per acre, depending 

 on the kind of grass seed used and the number of pounds per acre. 

 Even these figure> can probably be lowered if the seed is bought in 

 considerable quantity. 



In the mountain meadow- that are not too swampy, especially in 

 those areas where mountain clover grows abundantly, timothy can 

 be used to excellent advantage. For the outskirts of these meadows, 

 where the -oil i> a little too dry for timothy to make it> best growth, 

 tall fescue (Festuca elatior), brome-gra>> (Brom/us inermis), and 

 probably orchard grass can be recommended. On the gravelly hill- 

 sides mountain brome-grass {Bromus marginatum), a native grass, 

 can be grown to good advantage. So far as known, there is no seed 

 of this latter grass on the market. However, if there should be suf- 

 ficient demand for it. arrangements could be made for securing it. 



The above conclusions have been reached after two years of experi- 

 mentation and of study of the mountain conditions. 



In the autumn of 1902 Me— rs. W. H. Babcock and E. F. Ben>on 

 offered the Office of Grass and Forage Plant Investigations the use 

 of a section of land, which they agreed to fence, in their mountain 

 pasture on the Wenatchee Mountains, about midway between Ellen>- 

 burg and TTenatehee. This offer was gladly accepted, and experi- 

 ments to determine what gra->e> could be used in the improvement 

 of these mountain areas were immediately begun. The land selected 

 i> on top of the TTenatehee ridge, and is at an altitude of a little 

 more than 5.000 feet. The conditions' on this section are typical of 

 true mountain range, varying from fertile mountain meadows and 

 open parks to old timber burns and scab-land areas. 



The following grasses and forage plants were seeded the same 

 autumn: Timothy. Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis), redtop. 



