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MISC. PUBLICATION 



one or two years, and has had a chance to be seeded, another division 

 is deferred, and so on in rotation. 



This system is called " deferred and rotation grazing." The ap- 

 plication of the system is becoming more and more widespread. It 

 is being practiced on most of the sheep allotments on the national 

 forests. There are cases, however, where the extremely heavy stock- 

 ing of allotments, or other conditions, such as the lack of stock- 

 watering places well distributed, make it difficult or impractical to 

 apply this system. Generally the benefits of the system are remark- 

 able. There have been cases where the stand of forage has been 



Figure 16. 



-Natural reseeding under deferred and rotation grazing. Seed on these 

 plants will soon ripen, after which the area will be grazed 



more than doubled in a few years and the percentage of good forage 

 plants has increased materially. 



ARTIFICIAL RESEEDING 



Livestock men and others interested in range improvement have 

 been hopeful that some plant or plants might be successfully intro- 

 duced on range lands that had been depleted, or on which the 

 vegetation was naturally sparse. The research branch of the Forest 

 Service and that of the State Agricultural College have been devot- 

 ing some attention to this problem. Many stockmen also have tried 

 out seeding in an experimental way. A few plants have yielded 

 fairly satisfactory results where growing conditions have been above 

 average. 



This experimental work in artificial reseeding has dealt primarily 

 with the common cultivated or tame forage species. The most 

 promising of these include smooth brome, Kentucky bluegrass, 

 timothy, and sweetclover. These, however, can be established satis- 

 factorily only on areas where the soil, moisture, and other growing 

 conditions are above the average. 



Some of the native forage plants have given better results. They 

 are adapted to the growing conditions on the range, and if seed can 

 be obtained at a reasonable cost their use is justified. Large moun- 



