56 FORAGE CONDITIONS ON NORTHERN BORDER OF GREAT BASIN. 



get all he can out of the little that the country does produce. The 

 areas of absolutely depleted range on the mountains, the most pro- 

 ductive of any in the region and really the only grazing grounds, are 

 rapidly increasing. The large stretches of country, especially in 

 Steins Mountains, cleared of all semblance of forage during the past 

 summer, will not produce as much feed next year as they did this with 

 the same climatic conditions; and, with the present practices, which 

 bid fair to continue, will become less and less productive each succeed- 

 ing year. 



In such rough mountains and stony regions no method of improve- 

 ment having as its basis cultural operations are practicable. The only 

 process of renovation and improvement of sluj kind that can be of 

 utility is one that aims to control the pasturing in such a way as not 

 to injure the stand of grass. The whole question of preservation and 

 maintenance of native pasturage, therefore, is an administrative one. 

 In regions which have suffered most from a lack of such administra- 

 tion, such as the grazing areas of the Southwest, the native grasses 

 and other more valuable forage plants have been almost exterminated 

 and their places supplied by weedy growths of much less value. For- 

 tunately such transformations are slow to occur, but they are very 

 difficultly remedied when once established. 



(2) Clearing the ground of grass is not the only evil effect, as is well 

 known. The destruction of the shrubbery, all too scanty in this 

 region, has a potent influence on the lowland meadows and the moun- 

 tains themselves, both in relation to the conservation of moisture and 

 the protection of the surface soil from the erosive action of water. 

 The destruction of the vegetation means vastly more than simply 

 depriving cattle of food in the particular locality where close pas- 

 turing is practiced. 



(3) The lowland meadows which yield crops of wild wheat or T ^lue 

 stem would, without doubt, be greatly benefited by simple cultural 

 operations, even though no seed were sown. This grass, propagating 

 as it does like the wheat grasses of the plains region, by means of 

 creeping root stocks, would receive a great stimulus by having these 

 underground stems cut at intervals, and by stirring up the ground, 

 which becomes very hard during the summer, and is still more effectu- 

 ally packed b}^ the trampling of cattle during early winter and spring. 

 The seed of this grass, very easily collected, probably grows only to 

 a very limited extent under present conditions, but, with light disking 

 or harrowing, it might be used with profit to strengthen areas 

 which have become weakened by repeated cutting and overstocking. 

 There is no doubt that shallow disking, with a little scattering of seed of 

 this grass, would ver}^ materially improve many of the native meadows. 

 The areas which receive treatment would have to be very carefully 

 selected, however. There would in all probability be very little use in 



