Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-01-18
MAKING BEEF OUT OF DESERT
How Science Can Replace Luck in the Arid Yves
By Frederic j. HaSkin.

gramma grass, while in the flats a coarse green
grass called tODosa 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 the grass dry and of little
value. The experts Immediately fenced off the
gramma. They ranged the stock the tobosa
flats in the summer, and during the lean months
from February until the sumner rains began in
July they had the dry but nutritious crop of gram
ma to fall back upon. This not only greatly
duced the loss of stock from starvation, but it
greatly improved the gramma range by giving It
time to recuperate
The water supply was the most serious ques-
ton. The method of getting water was to sink wells
from IT'S to 500 feet deep and erect windmills
over them. This expensive. In fact, it the
expense of sinking wells more than any other
thing which had squeezed out the small ranchers-
The experts quickly determined how many wells
they could afford to sink and still produce cattle
a paying basis. They then supplemented these
wells by building dams across the arroyos
to catch freshet water They also built one pipe
line eight miles long from some permanent springs
in the mountains, thus carrying water to part
of the range which would otherwise have been
useless. In this way they built up watering sys-
tenn such that cattle rarely had to travel more
than two and one-hah miles to get water.
It was found profitable in especially bad
weather to feed of the cattle small amount
cottonseed cake; but this alone did not fill their
Accordingly two silos built and some tobosa
grass harvested and stored during the sum-
IueT III the WlnJ0T the SlIOS were opened ana CnS
fed to the cattle, but they refused to eat it
The experiment then tried of cutting the
desert plant varfously known yucca Spanish
bayonet and century plant which grows abundant
ly in the southwestern deserts, and Is of no
forage value the ground. When this had been
softened by being put through ensilage ma
chine and stored in the si1os, the cattle ats it
eagerly.
The experts found that the average crop Of
calves on this range was but so per cent of the
herd per year. By all of the above methods and
by introducing bulls of the best Hereford blood,
this increased to 81 per cent in bad year
The need of scientific supervision Of the arid
cattle range is shown by the difficulty Of esimat
ing the capacity of the range On any given range
a certain number of acres are necessary, an
average, to support one head Of stock one year
The cattlemen, going at the matter hit miss
nearly always overstocks his range IN good years
and then suffers heavy loss IN bad ones. The sci
entists found that 1t necessary to divide the
range on this into eight different classes
the carrying capacity of each class being deter
mined by observations extending a number Of
years. It was found that one head Of stock
uufres from twenty to one hundred acres OF range
for its support IN this region.
It is evident that IL similar studies were car
ried out upon all the arid range lands, and the
stocking limited according to capacity losses would
be greatly reduced.
Much has been said about the passing Of the
open range with its romantic but urproductive
methods Few realize how complete the change
is to be-. The cattle ranch OF the future will be
operated IN as careful and scientific manner as
a dollhouse. .-f