| Show IMPROVES FEED washington july 3 systematic control of grazing in the national forests has increased their productivity by 25 per cent davs W R chapline in charge of range research in the forest service united states depart ment of agriculture at the bame tune he says the regulation of grazing on the ranges has improved the condition of the live stock where it has been applied the range land in the west provides about 70 per cent of the feed for cattle sheep and go ilg raised in that lection i of the united states find yet this val j cabla resource has been so neglected that about 60 per cent of the range land is producing only one half the forage which it could produce because of overgrazing which holds back the forage growth and allows soil washing to take place As early as 1890 says mr chapline range grazing lands were stocked to their capacity while some were already overstocked over stocked the continued overstocking over stocking especially during droughts reduced the carrying capacity both by reduction in the quantity of valuable forage produced and by increasing erosion of the productive duc tive surface soil reduction in grazing capacity necessitated decreased numbers of livestock with resultant excessive per head investments in lands and improvements and uneconomic production the high prices for livestock during the war end a desire to increase production brought another in the industry heavy investments additional dit ional overstocking over stocking and tolore serious deterioration of ranges the subsequent depression haa wiped out the fortunes of thousands of livestock owners and earned many banks to bankruptcy furthermore the erosion of the range has carried millions of tons of deans from the ranges into the irrigation reservoirs filled irrigation ditches destroyed roads and other works and ruined many fabris by a blanket of sand end gravel the loss to the irrigation farmer has been as great as that to the livestock producer the forest service is determining how much grazing can be done on various types of range land and maintain satisfactory forage groath this knowledge is applied on the national forests where grazing is allowed only under permit and the use of the range is limited with a view to perpetual maintenance of the forage crop end stable livestock pro auction according to mr chapline there are still acres of range land in the and unreserved public domain with its state end private lands an which is inadequately losing their vegetation are and being left open to soil erosion which paves the way for unfitting them for any use at all the whole situation is one ol 01 building a profitable industry on ranges where essential parts have been depleted excessive ing investment established end credit badly crippled says mr chapline timber production must be maintained eroded watersheds restored other uses of the land protected ap a close coordination made between farm land and ranges the forest service maintains three range experiment stations the great basin in utah the jornada annew mexico and the santa rita in an aona several men also are to the study of spearl problems in other parts of the country service is cooperating with other bur baus of the department of agriculture in range and livestock investigations to date have clearly indicated that the satisfactory use of range forage offers the greatest possibilities ties for developing more efficient production decreasing costs and increasing profits in the range live business |
