The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-01-21
THE TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
IMPORTATION BUREAU
ny FREDERIC J. HAskIN. director.
Washington, d. G.
MAKING BEEF OUT OF DESERT.
How Science Can Replace Luck in the
Arid Vest.

VI u
How Science Can Replace Luck in the |
Arid vest.
Washington D. c., Jan. 1e.-On a |
sample bit of desert in southern New |
Mexico, the forest service has demon |
strated how the desert can be made, |
not TO bloom, but into beef. 1t has
shown how the arid western ranges |
upon which we are dependent for
scientific government management
about twice much as they are now
producing.
The experiment of scientific range
mana cement on the tornado range re-
serve has been going on for several
years to show the full possibilities OF
scientific knowledge applied to cattle
ranching. but what has already been
done is of great promise and impor-
lance in these days of dwindling meat
supply.
The forest service selected for it's
experiment. one of the most unprom-
Using bits of desert in the southwest.
The Jornada range reserve is in Dona
Ana county. New Mexico. and takes
its name from the fact that It lies
mainly in a great basin which was
named by the MeXicans the Valley of
the Journey of Death. They gave it
this pleasing name after q Mexican
general tried to march his troops
across it and most of them died OF
thirst. The average rainfall in this
region is but little more than eight
inches year. and is sometimes little
lore than three inches. Summer tenn
peratures of 106 are not uncommon.
High winds that drink up moisture
like thirsty giants blow almost inces-
sanity.
Small stock-owners tried to gain a
foothold in this region but one by
years of good rain, their herds would
increase little, but a bad year would
wipe out all they had gained Finally
but one man was left c. T. Turney,
who made a success by utilizing all of
the range and water for his one herd.
This progressive ranchman agreed to
place his stock and land at the dis
posal of the Forest service, and to
build all the fences and windmi1ls
they wanted, provided that he should
be reimbursed for these expenditures
with free use of government lands for
grazing. That was in 1912. Today
the number of cattle which the range
will carry has been increased at least
fifty per cent, the average numb Der of
calves born every year has increased
about twenty-five per cent, silos have
been built, and the prickly Spanish
bayonet, hitherto considered useless
converted into excellent ensilage; the
disease of blackleg has been largely
| eradicated, and the valley of the Jour-
ney of Death is considered one of the
best-watered cattle ranges in Southern
| New Mexico. James T. Jardine and
| l.. c. HURT, the government grazing
experts who have charge of the work,
say that it has just begun.
The government men found this
range dotted with windmills~at inter-
walls of ten or fifteen miles. A low
arid mountain range containing a few
springs occupied one side of it. About
| the watering places the better forage
trrr., hol a1,,,< +a1
| by overgrazing, while everywhere the
capacity of the range had been great
| ~ reduced. The watering places were
so far apart that weakened COWS and
calves often fell dead after travelling
I over the desert to reach them, and
then drinking their fill.
| Stockraising, as carried on by most
| of the ranchmen in the Southwest is
a form of gambling in which the I'M
| certain element is the weather. The
| task of the experts was to reduce this
game, with the odds against the
player, to a science.
! They Immediately saw what the
unframed man had overlooked for
| hundred years, that there were two
radically different kinds of range
within the experimental area of 200,-
600 acres. In the foothills and noun
| tainS grew a low grass which in the
! the flats a Coarse green grass called
!
| the flats a coarse gree grass called
| tobosa was the chief forage. AS long
as the cattle were allowed to roam
at will they sought the gramma in
/ the summer while it was growing,
and went down to the tobosa flats
in the winter when this grass was dry
| and of little value. The experts inn
| mediately fenced off the grammar
| They ranged the stock on the toboSa
flats in the summer, and during the
lean months from February until the
| summer rains began in July, they
had the dry but nutritious crop of
gramma to fall back upon. This not
| only greatly reduced the loss of stock
from starvation, but it greatly improv-
ed the gramma range by giving it
time to recuperate.
The water supply was the most
serious question. The methods of
getting water was to sink wells from
| 175 to 500 feet deep and erect wind
mills over them. This was expensive.
In fact, it was the expense of sinking
wells more than any other one thing
| which had squeezed out the small
ranchers. The experts quickly deter
mined how many wells they could af-
ford to sink and still produce cattle
on a paying basis. They then supple
| mented these we'll by building dams
across the arroyos so as to catch
freshet water. They also built one
pipe line eight miles long from some
permanent springs in the mountains,
thus carrying water to a part of the
range which would otherwise have
been useless. In this way they built
| up a watering system such that the
cattle rarely had to travel more than
| two and one-half miles to get water
| 1t was found profitable in especial
ly bad years to feed some of the cat
tie a small amount of cottonseed cake;
but this alone did not fill their needs.
They must have some form of rough
age Accordingly two silos were built,
and some tobosa grass was harvested
and stored during the summer. In the
winter the silos were opened and the
grass fed to the cattle, but they re-
fused to eat it. The experiment was
+ba,, of emitting fine MA MT