30 RANGE IMPROVEMENT IN ARIZONA. 



work performed directly by your agent, experiments are being con- 

 ducted at eight other stations in the southern part of the Territory. 

 In all of these cases those interested are doing the work with seed dis- 

 tributed from the station. The names and addresses of the ranchers 

 who are performing experiments according to this plan are as follows : 



M. R. Wise, Calabasas. 



C. H. Baylis, Oracle. 



H. C. Hooker, Wilcox. 



Mr. Prince, Tucson. 



Ozro Haskin, Tucson. 



F. O. Benedict, Tucson. 



W. M. Marteny, Arivaca. 



W. B. McCleary, Helvetia. 

 Operations on the ranch of Col. H. C. Hooker are a little more 

 extensive than in other instances. Your agent made a trip to the 

 ranch in the latter part of February for the purpose of starting the 

 work. Six small plats, aggregating about an acre of land, were sown 

 to eight species of forage plants. 



PRECIPITATION RECORDS. 



In connection with the range improvement experiments, five pre- 

 cipitation records are being taken, in order to determine to what extent 

 local variation in this particular obtains. Observations thus far con- 

 ducted point to some very interesting conclusions, but they have not 

 yet been continued long enough to enable one to generalize. The 

 gauges are located as follows: Four miles north of the University; 

 range reserve tract; Mescal; McCleary's camp; and 4 or 5 miles above 

 McCleary's camp, in the Santa Rita Mountains. The first two are 

 being attended to by the writer, the third by Mr. J. Ribail, and the 

 latter two by Mr. W. B. McCleary. These, together with the record 

 kept on the university grounds, give six readings, which will throw 

 some light on our investigations. 



SUMMARY AND SUGGESTIONS. 



1. It being evident that the present unproductive condition of the 

 range is due in the greatest measure to overstocking, it is desirable 

 that some form of control of our public lands be devised whereb}^ this 

 practice, inevitable under present conditions, will be discontinued. 

 How this desirable end maybe reached does not appear clear, but it is 

 evident that laws for the proper control and preservation of the ranges 

 are essential, not only to the stock-growing interests, but also to the 

 general welfare of the region, that the rains may be better conserved 

 and prevented from disfiguring the surface of the country to an extent 

 absolutely beyond the conception of anyone who has not had experi- 

 ence with these easily eroded Southwestern soils. The matter is of as 

 much importance to the irrigation farmer as to the stockman himself, 

 for the gullying of river channels during recent years and the cutting 



