TENURE AND USE OF ARID GRAZING LANDS. 37 
organization and better managerial practices. The experience of the 
stockmen of western Texas during the recent drought demonstrates 
that it is easily possible to overstock fenced ranges. But fenced 
ranges render possible many improvements in organization and prac- 
tice that are impossible on an open range, thus eliminating or at least 
minimizing the disadvantages previously discussed. (See bibliog- 
raphy, sec. 10.) 
Increase in quantity and quality of feed. — Probably the first and 
most important effect of control would be a marked increase in the 
quantity of available forage. This has been the almost universal 
experience upon ranges that have been inclosed. (See bibliography, 
sec. 7.) 
Besides the increase in the total amount of feed produced on the 
range, the fence also makes possible the maintenance or improvement 
of the quality of the range feed. All that is necessary to bring about 
this result is to allow the plants to go to seed at frequent intervals. 
Deferred grazing, as this practice is called, and rotation of pastures 
result in more feed and better feed [82], an assured supply of feed on 
the ground all the time, a reduced run-off, and the consequent better 
utilization of the water that falls. 
It is upon such fundamentals as these that the prophesy of marked 
increase in production on controlled ranges rests, especially when 
taken together with an increase in the percentage of young produced. 
Such prophesies are not mere statements of theoretical possibilities; 
they have been convincingly fulfilled wherever the system has been 
carried out. 
Introduction of valuable plants. — The improvement of the grazing 
capacity which may be expected to occur automatically upon a well 
managed controlled range is but the beginning of the total ultimate 
increase in feed which may be expected. There are numerous ways 
in which this increase may be brought about. Living now upon the 
ranges may be found certain kinds of plants that are better adapted 
to the environment than others, and which are at the same time 
better adapted to grazing uses. Individual plants of a given species 
possess variations that are economically valuable. Such plants, by 
proper treatment, may be made the dominant forage on a range, 
thereby considerably improving its grazing capacity. Shrubby plants 
of known value are very desirable on parts of the winter ranges, 
especially when such ranges are occasionally covered by heavy snow. 
There are forage plants which have not yet been tried out that will 
increase the forage output of much of such land. Little has been 
done toward such improvement of the range feed, and there is very 
little incentive for efforts of this kind, because as long as the stock- 
men have no control over the land which they use none of them can 
afford to make experiments. 
