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Show WATERSMES&S (The third of a series of articles appearing in this paper.) Controlled and regulated grazing need not be harmful to watershed areas. This means that the animals begin using the area after vegetation vege-tation growth is well along in the spring, that only those numbers which will result in moderate use of the range are permitted to groze, and that the animals are distributed so as to secure near even use over the entire range. Such control can be secured on domestic stgck, but it is difficult to secure any control other than controlling numbers on wildlife as deer. Plants can only grow, maintain, and increase by way of their own production. The green portions are the manufacturing centers. These green portions produce the needed elements for plant growth, seed production, and storage in the roots for the beginning growth the next spring. When the green portions port-ions are eaten too often and too much, these needed elements are not produced and eventually the plant dies. Thrity per cent or so of the season's vegetation growth left on the ground is very beneficial and necessary to a watershed are. This plant residue returns to the soil many of the elements taken for plant production, enriches the soil in humus (decaying plant material, and increases the soils ability to absorb and retain moisture. Leaving Leav-ing this plant residue on the range is not a waste of feed as is often felt, but rather a necessary part of nature's way of maintaining itself against the destructive forces. |