B. P. I.— 6. Agros.— «9. 



RANGE IMPROVEMENT IX ARIZONA, 



By David Griffiths, 

 Expert, in charge of Field Management, 



INTRODUCTION. 



On all the Western stock ranges whieh the writei- has visited there 

 have existed many small areas in cultivated fields, unused pastures, 

 fenced railroad rights of way, and similar situations -which are in 

 their virgin state or have so far recovered from overstocking as to 

 bear testimony to tlie original i^roductivity of the soil. Things are 

 far different in large areas of southern Arizona. Here unused pas- 

 tures are very rare, cultivated fields are fewer in number, and the 

 destruction is so complete that in many localities even the railroad 

 right of way has recovered but little in three or four years' time. On 

 the river bottoms a few indications of luxuriant growths of grass are 

 found, but in nearly every case, even in such favored localities, there 

 is little aside from this evidence, the actual original conditions being 

 veiy much modified. It would be but fair to state, however, that the 

 season in which the region was first visited was an unfavorable one, 

 being at llie close of an exceedingly long dry period, when even evi- 

 dence of forage was scanty. 



Many rancliers, farmers, and prospectors who have lived in the 

 country a long time have given much information relative to former 

 conditions, some certainly reliable and some doubtless extravagant, 

 as is ai)t to be the case in such matters. From the evidence given by 

 every old settler no conclusion could be reached other than that of 

 misuse of the range country and that the destruction was greater than 

 in the more favored ranges of the Northwest. How the destruction 

 of the range could be so nearly complete is somewhat beyond the con- 

 ception of those not familiar with the character of the precipitation, 

 configuration of the land, composition of the soils, and the habits of 

 the forage plants of the region. With the exception of the annuals 

 the grasses are nearl}' all known as "bunch grasses," a designation 

 which indicates that they are not turf formers. Even the blue grama 

 [Bouteloua oUgostachya), which forms such handsome and persistent 

 sod over vast areas on the ranges of the Northwest, grows here in 

 bunches. This prevailing characteristic, together with the suscepti- 

 bility of the surface soil to injury by the trampling of cattle, probably 

 accounts in a large measure for the extent of the denudation of the 

 range. During a season of rain the surface of the ground is badly 

 cut by the cattle that tramj) over it. After the February rains the 



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