2 BULLETIN 588, U. S. DEPARTMENT. OF AGRICULTURE. 
made by the Forest Service on the Jornada Range Reserve, a unit- 
comprising some 200,000 acres in southern New Mexico. The prob- 
lem involves: (a) Finding the system of management that will best 
bring about natural reseeding of the existing forage plants; (6) find- 
ing new plants suitable for seeding on the ranges of the Southwest; 
(c) determining the number and distribution of stock-watering 
places necessary for efficient use of the range, taking intO account 
cost of construction and returns expected; and (d) determining the 
carrying capacity of the range as a means of preventing its being 
overstocked. 
Other and related range problems also have been studied on the 
Jornada Reserve. One of these has to do with improving the average 
grade of stock and the average calf crop under range conditions, the 
possibility of which is generally recognized. Another is how to 
reduce the losses of stock from lack of feed and water in times of 
drought and from disease and straying that ordinarily occur in the 
Southwest. Such losses are a big drain on the profits of the stock 
industry and often retard, or even prevent, the develope of 
desirable breeding herds. 
The studies on the Jornada Reserve are by no means completed; 
when the length of time during which they will be carried on is con. 
sidered, it might be said that they are hardly begun. The results 
so far secured, however, seem to have an important enough bearing 
on the problem of increased meat production to justify their pres- 
entation in a bulletin, to constitute a progress report. They may 
be modified, of course, by study over a longer period. . In estimating 
the possibilities for improvement,-therefore, every effort is madé to 
be conservative. The results are fucreea dl: in detail 1 in the body of 
the text and are summarized at the end. 
Naturally, in working with so large a range unit the results are 
lacking in the degree of refinement obtainable in feed yards and 
small-scale experiments. This, however, is more than offset by the 
fact that each experiment, ie pea lered constitutes its own 
demonstration on a practical scale. 
JORNADA RANGE RESERVE. 
The Jornada Range-Reserve is located in Dona Ana County, N. 
Mex., in the Rio Grande trough, about 50 miles north of the Mexi- 
can boundary. It is typical of a large territory in the South- 
west which, owing to natural and climatic conditions, will probably 
always be best adapted to the production of live stock on compara- 
tively large holdings. The Reserve was created by Executive order, 
May 3, 1912, at the request of the Department of Agriculture, with 
the idea of securing a complete range unit for conducting experiments 
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