Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-01-18

VIZ ASHINGTON, Jan. lon a sample bit OF
wv desert in southern New Mexico the forest
service has demonstrated 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 meat can be made to produce
under scientific government management about
twice as much as they are now producing.
The experiment of scientific range manage
ment on the tornado range reserve has been going
on for several years. 1t will take many more years
to show the full possibilities of scientific knowl-
edge applied to eattle-ranching, but what has al
ready been done is of great promise and Importance
in these days of dwindng meat supply.
The forest service selected for its experiment
one of the most unpromising bits of desert in the
southwest The Tornado range reserve is in Dona
Ana county, New Mexico and takes its name from
the fact that 1t lies mainly in great basin which
was named by the MeXicans the Valley of the Jour-
ney of Death They gave it this pleasing name
after 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
more than three inches. Summer temperatures
of 106 are not uncommon. High winds that drink
up moisture like thirsty giants blow almost in
cessantly.
Small stock owners tried to gain foothold IN
this region, but one by one they failed and moved
out. In years of good rain, their herds would in
a 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 utiliz-
ing all of the range and water for his herd.
stock and land at the disposal of the forest service
and to build all the fences and windmills they
wanted provided that he should be REIN bursed 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
number of calves born every year has increased
about twenty-five per cent, silos have been built,
and the prickly Spanish bayonet, hitherto consfd-
cred useless, converted into excellent ensage: the
disease of blackeg has been largely eradicated, and
the Valley Of the Journey Of Death is considered
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 found this range dotted
with windmills at intervals of ten fifteen miles
low arid mountain range containing a few
springs occupied side of it. About the watering
places the better forage grasses had been almost
exterminated by overgrazing, while everywhere the
capacity of the range had been greatly reduced.
The watering places far apart that weak
ened COWS and calves often fell dead after trav-
cling over the desert to reach them and then
drinking their fill
Stock raising as carried by most of the
in which the uncertain 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 what the unframed man
had overlooked for a hundred years, that there
two radically different kinds of range within
the experimental area of 200 900 acres In the
foothills and mountains grew a low grass which
in the fall bore rich heads Of black grain, known