32 BULLETIN 1089, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
DEFERRED AND ROTATION GRAZING. 
Good herding management and a correction of misuse of the range 
through the practice of locally confining the herd necessitates em- 
ployment of the principles of deferred and rotation grazing. This 
involves use of the range under a system which will permit a maxi- 
mum of grazing and at the same time a natural reproduction of the 
forage crop in such way as to maintain the relation of grazing to 
these requirements at different stages of growth. 
The following principles developed by observations of sheep and 
cattle grazing on the national forests of the western United States w 
will apply as well to Alaskan reindeer grazing: 
(1) Removal -of the herbage year after year during the early part of the 
growing season weakens the plants, delays the resumption of growth, advances 
the time of maturity, and decreases the seed production and the fertility of 
the seed. 
(2) Under the practice of yearlong or season-long grazing, the growth of the 
plants and seed production are seriously interfered with. A range so used, 
when stocked to its full capacity, finally becomes denuded. 
(3) Grazing after seed maturity in no way interferes with flowerstalk pro- 
duction. As much fertile seed is produced as where the vegetation is pro- 
tected from grazing during the whole of the year. 
(4) Deferred grazing (grazing after seed maturity) insures the planting of 
the seed crop and the permanent establishment of seedling plants without 
sacrificing the season's forage. 
(5) Deferred grazing can be applied wherever the vegetation remains 
palatable after seed maturity and produces a seed crop, provided ample water 
facilities for stock exist or may be developed. 
(6) Yearlong protection against grazing of the range favors plant growth 
and seed production, but does not insure the planting of the seed. Moreover, 
it is impracticable, because of the entire loss of the forage crop. 
Based on the above principles, the system of deferred and rotation 
grazing aims to minimize the injury from grazing during the early 
and main growth periods of the vegetation (1) by having each por- 
tion of the range bear its share of the early grazing and (2) by 
protecting each portion of the range in its turn until after seed 
maturity, so that the main forage plants will regain their vigor and 
reproduce either from seed or vegetatively. 12 This may be accom- 
plished by dividing the grazing unit into three or four parts of 
about equal carrying capacity, in such way as to give the best control 
of stock on each portion, and by rotating the time of grazing from 
year to year progressively between these areas so as to give both 
deferred and early grazing to each in turn. 
At this time, on Alaskan ranges, deferred and rotation grazing can 
best be secured on parts of the range unit where localized over- 
11 Sampson,, Arthur W., Natural revegetation of range lands based upon growth require- 
ments and life history of the vegetation : Journ. Agr. Research, U. S. Dept. Agr., vol. 3, 
no. 2, pp. 93-148. 1914. 
*2 Jardine, James T., and Mark Anderson, Op. cit., pp. 60-65, 
