GOATS ON FAR WESTERN RANGES. 7 
Tt is important that this vegetation be kept thrifty, so that growth 
will start promptly and vigorously as soon as weather is favorable 
in the spring. Where the range is used from the kidding corral by 
large herds during the greater part of the year, much of the choice 
forage is killed out or is greatly weakened by continuous grazing, 
so that the spring growth is greatly delayed and is scanty when it 
does come. As a result the does have to travel too far, are not 
sufficiently nourished during kidding time, and fail to provide ample 
milk and alse to mother their kids properly. Under such conditions 
there is considerable trouble in handhng the flock during Indding, 
and it is difficult to keep down the losses. 
It is necessary to graze the does continuously from the kidding 
corrals during the kidding period and for two or three weeks after 
the close of kidding. Only strong, vigorous plants which have stored 
considerable food material in their roots during the growing period 
of the former year can withstand such continued, premature grazing. 
Accordingly, the does and kids should be moved to the summer-and- 
fall range just as soon as possible, so that the plants on the kidding 
range will have an opportunity during the summer growing season 
to make suflicient growth to insure an early, vigorous growth the 
following spring. If the goats are moved shortly after kidding and 
are not grazed on this spring area until the next spring, the plants 
will recuperate during the summer from the heavy early spring graz- 
ing and there will be no deterioration in the range forage. 
The spring range should have enough forage so that the goats 
will be properly nourished during the period they are on it and no 
part of it be overgrazed. If there is surplus forage in the fall, it may 
be possible to graze it lightly, but care should be taken to see that 
the grass and weed forage is not grazed so much as to injure it, and 
that the buds of the brush are not consumed. 
it is best to refrain from grazing the kidding range during the 
winter, and under no circumstances should the winter grazing on 
this range be more than very light. 
Summer-and-fall range-——When the does and kids are removed 
from the kidding range they should be taken to the range set aside for 
summer-and-fall use. Since the kids depend largely upon their 
mothers’ milk and upon green, succulent food for nourishment dur- 
ing the summer, there should be plenty of grass and weed forage on 
the summer range. Such forage when young may be injured by 
erazing. The forage, therefore, should be as far advanced as pos- 
sible when grazing begins. 
On the summer range it is necessary to graze the plants during their 
principal growing period and while they are producing their flower 
stalks and seed. The summer is also the most successful period for 
establishing seedlings. A normal plant growth. the production of 
