A BILLION ACRES OF GRASSLANDS

H. H. Wooten, C. P. Barnes

THE GRASSLANDS, hay lands, and forested range lands of the entire United States cover more than a billion acres, nearly 60 percent of the total land area. They furnish about half of the feed for all livestock. Two-thirds of this land is privately owned. The rest, mainly in the dry and mountainous parts of the Western States, is publicly owned. More than half of the farms and ranches of the country depend largely on grassland for feed.

Originally about 700 million acres in the United States were covered with grass, usually mixed with other herbaceous plants. Nearly 250 million acres of that grassland have been plowed up and used for crops or for pasture in rotation with crops, including about 10 million acres of irrigated land.

The grasslands of the central prairies formed the largest body of highly productive soils in America; they have been converted almost entirely to cropland. Semiarid, desert vegetation characterized about 400 million acres, of which about 12 million acres have been reclaimed by irrigation.

Forests (not including semiarid woodland like pinyon, juniper, mesquite, and chaparral) originally covered about 800 million acres; about 350 million acres have been cleared at one time or another for agriculture, of which probably more than 50 million acres have reverted to forest cover and about 25 million acres have been converted to other uses. More than half of the present area of forest and cut-over land is pastured.

The country has probably more than 175 million acres of improved pasture on fair to good land, some of which compares favorably with cropland in productivity, but most grazing lands are and or rough, uncultivated, unfertilized, and relatively poor land as compared with cropland.

Pasture and grazing lands, excluding hay land but including forested land that is pastured, cover considerably more than half the area of continental United States approximately 1,052 million acres about 513 million acres in the West, 242 million acres on the Great Plains, 116 million acres in the North, and 181 million acres in the South. About 707 million acres are open pasture and 345 million acres forest or woodland pasture.

Only about 10 percent of the pasture land, 100 to 110 million acres, is suitable for regular cultivation in its present condition. The rest generally is too dry, rough, wet, or steep or too high in elevation for field crops, although some of it could be made fit for tillage by irrigation, drainage, clearing, or better management.

Approximately 683 million acres, or two-thirds of the pasture and grazing lands, is privately owned. Of the other 369 million acres, about 304 million acres is federally owned. The rest belongs to States and counties.

The principal native grazing lands are in the West and lower South. Those in the West are predominantly grasslands or desert shrub lands too dry for arable farming, although an important part is mountain woodland, moist enough for trees but generally too rough for cultivation. Those of the South are principally forested grazing lands, wet prairie, and marsh.

The western and Great Plains pasture and grazing lands occupy approximately 755 million acres. They form the largest and most important grazing area in the Nation.

The six Great Plains States include a grassland area of about 242 million acres, approximately 30 percent of the western grazing land. Here grazing is primarily of native short grasses, principally grama grass and buffalograss, although tall grasses predominate toward the eastern margin of the area and on deep, sandy soils. The only extensive area of native grazing land remaining in the humid, tall-grass, prairie region is the Flint Hills, in eastern Kansas.

Formerly much of the western Great Plains was used for grazing all year. Subdivision of land into farms and ranches, and fencing have now reduced the grazing area open to stockmen in many sections until it has generally become necessary to shorten the grazing season and substitute more winter feed. Weather conditions, deterioration of grass cover, and lack of brush for shelter also have induced a shift from yearlong grazing. The Great Plains grazing lands are mainly in privately owned ranches.

The six northern Mountain and Intermountain States contain approximately 295 million acres of grazing land. Much of it is covered with forest or sparse woodland, although open, grassy "parks" and sage-covered basins are numerous in the forested areas. Grass is the principal type of forage. The higher mountains furnish from 3 to 6 months of grazing in summer. Cattle and sheep are driven from these summer ranges to the lower valleys in winter, where they are grazed or fed forage produced mainly under irrigation. Some intermediate elevations afford grazing during most of the year, but the forage is generally not sufficient to carry the animals more than 6 to 8 months without a change of pasture. A large part of the mountain grazing lands is in public ownership.