Pasturage in the United States. 



63 



ally. The latter still wages a war of extermination on the 

 grasses which he finds growing in his fields ; and breaks up 

 the sod to make room for more cotton. 



Some of the leading stockmen are, however, now dividing 

 their holdings into winter and summer pastures, one being 

 retained exclusively for winter use, and no stock being 

 allowed to go into it until after the grasses have ripened and 

 shed their seed ; the other being used for spring and summer 

 grazing. The stock is never allowed to run on any one 

 pasture for more than sixty to ninety days. A case is 

 mentioned where this treatment doubled the capacity of a 

 pasture in two years, and the varieties of grasses were also 

 very largely increased. There is, it is held, good reason to 

 believe that by adopting this plan the pastures may in a few 

 years be brought back to something like their original 

 capacity for supporting stock. 



The territory of Central Texas covers an area of 12,800,000 

 acres, of which one-half is agricultural, and the other half 

 grazing land. It is estimated that ten acres on the average 

 are now necessary for the annual support of every head ot 

 cattle, hence it follows that the number which the grass land 

 can support is 640,000 head as compared with the 3,200,000 

 cattle which are estimated to have been sustained on these 

 ranges in the year 1880. Taking the average market value 

 of the stock cattle of Central Texas now at about £6, per 

 head, the present capacity of the range, as regards the value 

 of its cattle, is only ;£'2, 500,000 compared with ;^io,7O0,000 

 twenty years ago. If, it is added, the supposition is correct 

 that it is yet practicable for the ranges throughout central 

 Texas to be renewed to the extent of restoring it to its former 

 capacity for maintaining stock, the above figures show the 

 possible advantage to be secured, more especially as this 

 condition of the ranges in question represents very fairly the 

 state of affairs in all the grazing regions of the United 

 States, excepting only those where the ranchman owns all 

 the land, or controls it under lease for a term of years. 



