Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1914-10-01
RESTORING THE RANGE.
System of Deferred Grazing Suggested
as a Remedy For Deterioration.

System OF Deferred Grazing Suggested
as a Remedy For Deterioration.
Prepared by the forest service. United
States department of agricultural
That a serious decline In the carrying
capacity OF vast areas of western
grazing lands, due largely to the fact
that stockmen fail to give the range
plants a chance to keep growing. can
be remedied without closing these
areas to cattle and sheep Is the state
ment made in bulletin recently issued
on range improvement. Excessive graz
ing In the spring before the forage crop
is mature and such grazing continued
year after year, says the department,
are the main causes of range deteriora-
ton.
On the national forests, the depart
ment points out, where the govern
ment Is doing away with these evils
and stock is handled under government
regulation, the range lands have i'm
proved to a point where it is again pos
sible to market large numbers Of beef
and mutton animals directly from the
range.
In the free for all" period Of early
days, the department goes on to say,
the most palatable forage plants were
SO closely cropped that they were I'M
able 10 develop the necessary plant
food and SO literally starved. In adj
dition, the roots were frequently in
jured by trampling or killed by ex-
posture. AS Il result the best kind Of
vegetation grew weaker from season
TO season, and where the practice of
early and close grazing was continued
the range at last became practically
denuded.
The vegetation which furnishes the
grazing crop has much the same growth
requirements as a farm crop. No
farmer who hopes to realize the best
returns from permanent hay mead
ow, il is stated, would think of har-
vesting the crop as soon as 1t Is tall
enough to cut, regardless of whether
or not it is mature. Nor would he
Craze permanent pasture closely
from the time the growth begins I'M
til ii ceases. for he knows that this
will result finally in killing it out. And
since climate and soil conditions over
much of the western grazing lands are
less favorable to plant growth than
those on the average farm even great
er care must be exercised in utilizing
81 e 10 with
that on the farm.
The remedy suggested for range de-
terioration is n system of deferred
grazing. Under such n plan an over
grazed portion of the range, sufficiently
large to supply the forage from the
time of seed maturity until the end OF
the grazing season, is protected from
stock until the seed crop has matured.
Upon maturity of the seed crop the
forage is graZed during the first sea
son, but not to the extent of injuring
seed plants The same area is protect
ed in the same way during the second
and. If necessary, subsequent seasons,
or until the new plants have been
securely established When the area
has been thoroughly reseeded it can
be again grazed early In the season,
and a second area, large enough to ac-
commodate the stock from the time OF
seed ripening to the end of the season,
is protected until the forage is mature.
By this method Of alternating late
grazing from one area to another
weakened vegetation can recover It's
vitality without the need of having the
land closed to grazing the entire year.