Heppner gazette. [volume] (Heppner, Morrow County, Or.) 1892-1912, 1907-09-19
RESTOCKING THE RANGES.
Serious Problem as Viewed by State
Veterinarian of Washington.

Serious Problem as Viewed by State
Veterinarian of Washington.
During the past few weeks DR.. S. B
Nelson, state veterinarian of Washing
ton has spent considerable time in
Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and
Asotin counties, examining many
bands of sheep that are kept in these
counties, as to their general health,
with particular reference to "scab. "
Recently, in discussing things of in
! terest he had observed in going from
one sheep camp to another, DR.. Nelson
came to the problem Of restocking
the ranges" which is now 30 absorb
ing to stockmen.
"One Of the serious problems now
confronting tho stockmen Of this state
Is the question of restocking the ranges
with the original bunch grass" he
said. "Oid settlers toll us that when
they came here forty years ago, tho
bunch grass was from two to three feet
tall, and very heavy. The promiscu-
Gus grazing Of the stock over the ranges
has put them in their present bare, or
semi -bare, condition The reclsiming
OF these vast tracts Of grazing land is a
problem to which the agricultural de-
partments of various institutions have
given great deal of attention.
"Some seven or eight years ago
rode over these same ranges and found
the bunch grass practically all gone in
many places. This condition could
be observed for miles and miles as the
ranges were ridden over. Recently l
was very much astonished is passing
through these same regions to find that
thousands of acres had been fenced,
while equally large tracts were not
fenced, but were held as summer range
by sheepmen who practically controlled
them. observed that these ranges,
ba,e several years ago, were, at the
time of my visit, covered with luxur-
liant growth of bunch grass, standing
from eighteen to thirty inches high. In
places the grass was 80 heavy that 1t
could not be moved for hay. was
also much surprised to see that in
places that had been protected for a
loss number Of years, the heavy burches
Of grass were scattered, and between
the big punches, punches from two to
three years old were we'll started. 1t
was very easy to pick out bunch of
two-yesI-old grass from among num-
Der of the older punches. In looking
into theis question discovered how it
was that these ranges had been re-
stocked.
"The sheep are kept on these winter
ranges from the time they come out of
the mountains IN the fall, during Sep
tember and early October, until after
lambing, and short time the follow
icg spring. Early in the spring the
sheep eat the young, tender bunch
grass, but the sheep are we'll scattered
"a good herder nearly always keeps his
sheep scattered) the bunch grass as it
gets older becomes tougher, and the
sheep do not like it 80 we'll. By the
latter part of April and early in May,
the sheep prefer the many weeds, espe-
cially sunfowers, never touching bunch
grass at all. Many, many times dur
ing my trips through these counties, /
saw bands of from fifteen to twenty
five hundred sheep grazing in bunch
grass from one foot to eighteen inches
high and never touching it. They were
picking out the little weeds in between
the punches Of grass, and wherever
there were areas of sunflowers, they
would eat the flowers perfectly clean
wherever they went.
= "From the first to ,e fifteenth Of
June the sheep are taken into the
mountains and kept until the latter
part of September. Now when the
sheep are brought back in September,
the bunch grass has seeded, the seed
being scattered over the ground. The
fall rains seem to soften the bunch
grass, making it tender so that the
sheep eat it greedily. In this way, by
eating the early shoots before the grass
goes to seed, and then eating this ma
ture, semi-cured grass after it has gone
to seed, the seed is saved on the ground
and resown, and the stand of bunch
grass is continually increased.
"Ihis has demonstrated to me very
strongly, that if men owning large
areas of grazing land expect to keep
their ranges up to the present stand
ard, or even increase the stand of
bunch grass, that they must Of neces-
sity protect the bunch grass at least
every other year, during its seeding
time; that is. from the time the seed
begins to form until the mature seeds
are shattered on the ground. lam
convinced that the problem Of restock-
ing the ranges may TO Z" very large ex-
tent be solved by fencing the grazing
lands, and, at intervals, resting them"
WRITES OF OREGON.