12 BULLETIN 34, U. S, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
tected in me same way during the second ana, if necessary, subse- 
quent seasons, or until the new plants have been securely established : 
(4) when the area has been thoroughly reseeded, it is grazed early 
in the season and a second area, of sufficient size to accommodate the 
stock from the time of the ripening of the seed to the end of the 
grazing season, is protected until the forage has matured; (a) this 
method of alternating late grazing from one area to another is con- 
tinued not only during the period required for the restocking of the 
lands, but even after the areas have been fully revegetated. It has 
been found both from the experiments and from practical applica- 
tion in range management that weakened vegetation thus protected 
recovers its vitality quite as readily as when the land is closed to 
grazing the entire year. The amount of forage produced was the 
same, and the flower stalks were sent up and seed matured at the 
same time on deferred-grazed and yearlong-protected lands. This 
point is further substantiated from results obtained from clipping 
matured forage and protecting it throughout the year — the vigor of 
the vegetation being rapidly restored and equally well maintained in 
both cases. 
One of the greatest advantages of the deferred system of grazing is 
that the forage may be fully utilized while the lands are being re- 
seeded. Though the range is not available for grazing until after seed 
maturity, the herbage, while not succulent at that time, is eaten with 
relish. Stock are not in need of succulent food in the latter part of 
the season, since a small milk flow is then sufficient for the lambs. 
TThere deferred grazing has been thoroughly tried, sheep have been 
found to scatter more widely over the land than when the herbage 
was succulent, but practically all the valuable forage plants were 
closely cropped. Lambs as well as dry sheep made satisfactory 
gains, and the fat was of a solid, substantial nature. 
The nutritive value of the forage in the autumn, as shown by the 
condition of the stock, is further proved by a chemical analysis made 
of the herbage. For example, the leaf blades of mountain bunch- 
grass after maturity contain about twice as much nitrogen, or bone 
and muscle building material, and nearly the same amount of fat, as 
well-cured timothy hay, while the crude fiber, or indigestible mate- 
rial, is appreciably less than in timothy. 
Perhaps the main advantage of deferred grazing, however, is that 
it plants the seed, which is so essential to reproduction. On an area 
orrazed after seed maturity there were found seedlings of all im- 
portant forage jolants: on an adjoining yearlong-protected area only 
such species as white foxtail (Sitanion velutinum), the seeds of 
which have stiff barbs, were reproducing. TTherever enough plants 
were left on a deferred-grazed area to produce the necessary seed, no 
matter what its size and character, seedlings were in evidence. In 
