Show Cattle Still Graze on a Billion Acres in U. S. A. I j 1 I I I I I The hay lands and range lands of the United States cover nearly 60 per cent of the total land They furnish about half of the feed for all Nearly million acres of the virgin grasslands have been plowed up and used for crops or for pasture In rotation with The central prairies which formed the largest body of highly productive soils in have been converted almost entirely to crop Of the million acres of western semi-arid about 12 million acres have been reclaimed by The country has more than million acres of Improved pasture on fair to good but most grazing lands are semiarid or with rela-I poor soil as compared with crop The best are on the great plains of the nearly acres now mostly privately owned The dominant vegetation of million acres of southwestern arid grazing lands is desert some species of which are grazed and but others are not palata-I ble and cannot be Most of these lands in New Arizona and southern are publicly owned and are used little or not at all for The Coast States have nearly million acres of grazing both open and The humid pastures of Washington and Oregon contain about 5 million and the Irrigated pastures of the West about 2 million Even if all the usable parts of western grazing lands were pushed to their physical limits as there would still be some million acres left for Though the carrying capacity on the whole is low per many of the grasses and other plants are nutritious and supply feed for a large portion of the nation's Land Used for Hay and Pasture in the United States Million Grassland harvested for hay 75 Cropland used for pasture 50 Other pasture 60 Other non-forested pasture and grazing Woodland and forest pasture Total Grazing in the more humid North-central and Northeastern sections is mainly on introduced plants in improved farm In some cases an acre of pasture furnishes all the roughage a dairy cow or steer can eat the whole while in some areas of the West a steer cannot get enough to eat from 50 This disparity is due to the supply of length of and soil The most productive pastures arc In humid or regions of mild climate where irrigation is A detailed account of utilization of the grasslands ot the United States is given by H. Wo ti n and C. P. Barnes in fie yearbook of agriculture for With the increased Improvement of the soil where practical and the better utilization of all grass the percentage of livestock feed supplied by hay and silage can be raised from approximately 50 per cent of the total to 60 or perhaps even to 70 per cent or Such a modification of our agriculture would work toward conservation of our soil greater economy in our crop and better health for our |