12 RANGE IMPROVEMENT IN ARIZONA. 



raisers in the Territory, under date of December 11, 1900, writes as 

 follows : 



1. The southeastern. 



2. Thirty-five j-ears. 



3. Fully double. 



4. These regions have been diminished in grazing facilities fully 50 per cent in 

 twenty-five years. 



5. The San Pedro Valley in 1870 had an abundance of willow, cottonwood, syc- 

 amore, and mesquite timber, also large beds of saccaton and grama grasses, sage- 

 brush, and underbrush of many kinds. The river bed was shallow and grassy and 

 its banks were beautiful with a luxuriant growth of vegetation. Now the river 

 is deep and its banks are washed out, the trees and underbrush are gone, the sac- 

 caton has been cut out by the plow and grub hoe, the mesa has been grazed by 

 thousands of horses and cattle, and the valley has been farmed. Cattle and horses 

 going to and from feed and water have made many trails or paths to the moun- 

 tains. Browse on the hillsides has been eaten off. Fire has destroyed much of 

 the shrubbery as well as the grass, giving the winds and rains full sweep to carry 

 away the earth loosened by the feet of the animals. In this way many waterways 

 have been cut from the hills to the river bed. There is now little or nothing to 

 stop the great currents of water reaching the river bed with such force as to cut 

 large channels and destroy mach of the land under cultivation, leaving the river 

 from 10 to 40 feet below its former banks. Thus it has caused much expense in 

 bringing the water to the cultivated lands, and necessitated much labor to dam 

 up the channel and keep the irrigating ditches in repair. 



7. Gramas, saccatons, bunch, and six-weeks grasses. 



8. Principally to overstocking. In times of drought even the roots are eaten 

 and destroyed by cattle, while if not fed down or eaten out the roots would grow 

 again with winter moisture. 



9. There were fully 50,000 head of stock at the head of Sulphur Spring Valley 

 and the valley of the Aravipa in 1890. In 1900 there were not more than one-half 

 that number and they were doing poorly. 



10. I will place 1 acre or more under fence on my land in any situation you 

 may select for your experiments, providing you will superintend the planting 

 and direct the cultivation, taking from my ranch such teams, farming tools, 

 employees, etc. , as you may require. 



I am, respectfully yours, H. C. Hooker, 



Projirietor Sierra Bonita Ranch, 



Mr. C. H. Bayiess, of Oracle, Ariz., in addition to answering ques- 

 tions, submitted a statement containing a forcible expression of the 

 futilit}' of attempting to control the range without the help of the 

 Government or the ranchers. It appears to the Avriter that the ranch- 

 ers and those interested in stock growing are beginning to realize 

 more and more the importance of placing the range management in 

 the hands of some one having authority and an interest in its preser- 

 vation. The objection to the control of the range is gradually wear- 

 ing awa3^ At least a dozen ranchers have expressed themselves to 

 me within the past year in fully as emphatic terms as Mr. Baj^less 

 in his letter quoted below. With reference to range management Mr. 

 Bayiess writes as ifollows: 



Dear Sir: Within find answers to questions sent me. Permit me to add that 

 no practical plan can well be advanced for increasing plant growth on any open 



