40 STOCK RANGES OF NORTHWESTERN CALIFORNIA. 



capacity is very much greater in the case of the former than of the 

 latter. The value of a range, moreover, depends not alone ou the 

 number of head it will carry, but also, and primarily, upon the nature 

 and quality of the forage. If the prevailing forage plants are annuals, 

 or even perennial bunch-grasses, the maximum carrying capacity, for 

 a few years at least, may be as high as a range producing turf -forming 

 or creeping-rooted grasses, but its optimum will be much lower. 



How overstocking effects deterioration. — Two factors are at work on 

 range deterioration. One is the destruction of the choicest forage 

 plants by selection; the other the introduction of uneatable weeds 

 which, multiplying rapidly, crowd out the often less vigorous, useful 

 species, and fill the spaces left vacant. 



So long as there is a choice left to them, stock naturally wander over 

 a range, picking out from among other plants the specially palatable 

 species. Thus, by close cropping, the favorite forage plants may be 

 almost entirely prevented from seeding. On an "annual" range 

 most of the plants, being shallow-rooted annuals, are easily pulled out 

 and destroyed. As they depend entirely on the production of seed for 

 the propagation of their kind, it is clear that in this way their num- 

 ber is rapidly diminished. A few always escape, on account of their 

 situation in secluded places, or because of their depauperate size, or 

 from other causes, but these are too few in number or too poor in seed 

 production to maintain the productiveness of the range. 



On a virgin range there is not only an abundance of plants sufficient 

 to feed all the stock and to scatter seed as well, but also a large quan- 

 tity of ungerminated seed lying dormant in the soil. On this account 

 it is clear that such a range maybe stocked to its maximum capacity, 

 for a short time, without injury. After a year or two, or perhaps a 

 still shorter time, the granary of surplus seed is exhausted and heavy 

 stocking prevents the formation of more than a small quantity of 

 new seed. Then deterioration commences. Every plant eaten means 

 not only the loss of one individual but also the destruction of so 

 much reproductive power. Formerly there were plants enough not 

 only for forage but also for seeding ; now, every one eaten represents 

 so much seeding capacity destroyed. And herein lies the difference 

 in value (now represented by many dollars) between the annual and 

 the perennial range. As an annual range depends on the production 

 of seed for its preservation, close feeding means the destruction of 

 the next generation as well as the present. A perennial range, on the 

 other hand, does not depend upon seed for its preservation and often 

 not for its reproduction; for the individual plants live on from year 

 to year and the best of them propagate themselves from their run- 

 ning underground stems. Such, plants can be pastured comparatively 

 close, not only without injury but with absolute benefit, for close 

 grazing induces them to throw out more roots and form a denser turf. 



The selection by stock of the choicest of the annual plants hastens 



