The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-07-16

never be eaten by sheep. They will never
eat il, big or little or any tw1g whatever
Ii is impossible for them to eat the ch1veS
of that kind of tree; at least they never
do.
Colonel May says: The sheep eat up
every spear of vegetation they come to,
the leaves and twigs and willow brush
AS high up as they can reach they destroy
every tree and sprout. In reply TO that
We desire to say that sheep do not eat
up every spear of vegetation, unless the
ground is overstocked. Like all other
domestic animals, they eat little and
pass on, unless they are starved to eat
ing the ground too closely: the state
ment of the superintendent is at variance
with the statement on the next page, IN
which he says. the herders are in the
habit of crowding their fiocks forward,
table matter in order to reach the fresh
growing vegetation on the higher eleva-
tons. The eating of the willow brush
can have no injurious effect on the reser-
walton or to any industry.
The colonel further states: Reforestra-
ton follows fires but not sheep grazing
evidence that we have and the expert
ence of our farmers is that the tree and
underbrush spring up fresh every year
after the sheep have been there. Sheen
have been on this reservation for thirty
years constantly every summer. The
young growth has come Notwithstanding
sheep grazing and after sheep grazing.
Water For Irrigation.
1.-The amount of water available for ir
rigation in Utah is three times what it
was when the settlers first went there.
And yet for thirty years the sheen have
the streams. The result shows that
SheepraiSinge has not injured the water
supply. Colonel May says in his report:
Where the soil and vegetation have been
undiSturbed by the sheep L have seen
great banks OF snow in the early summer
with no signs of water on the surface
running from il. He could not have seen
this upon this reservation, because he
was not there in the early summer. He
says that the whole reservation
has been pastured by sheep, and indeed
1t has, but he could have seen in early
July, in every year, on this reservation,
where it had been disturbed. as well as
where it had been undisturbed, great
drifts of snow still remaining. Today from
the Union Pacific railroad the noun
tains of this reservation can be seen in
July, with great banks of snow visible
they have been 'undisturbed' by sheep
that the great banks of snow exist: il is
because they have drifted into the heavy
sulches, and the learned colonel is mis-
taken when he says, where safeguarding
has to any large extent existed these
large banks of snow disappear entirely in
the spring.
Not only this year. but every wear.
they Will be found in midsummer in the
high mountains of the Wasatch and Vim
tab ranges. These statements as to the
water passing off in the spring do not
come from the farmers who are Interested
in preserving the water. The farmers of
Utah do not complain of the sheep. They
know that the irrigation is not endangered
by them.
Few Forest Fires.
In Utah we have had fewer forest fires
than in any other state. The sheep herd
ers of Utah are the farmers of that state.
Many OF the owners go with their sheep.
They have no object 10 gain by a reckless
destruction of the timber or any injury
TO the grass. They cannot drive their
sheep through dead timber as well as
through living They would gain nothing
grass. Nor would the fire in any manner
increase the pasturage for the next sea-
son. The grass of each year is supposed
to be largely eaten by the sheep that are
in there. For these reasons we think that
the herders do not fire the woods either
purpOSely or negligently.
Colonel May does not say what proper
ton or per cent the sheen industry occu-
pies in the business of the state. Perhaps
10 per cent would be a large estimate but
ii has a very large effect in all the re-
ceiptS of the state and is second only TO
mining in actual production. 1t probably
puts more money into the hands of the
Utah people than mining. 1t is the great
industry OF the state of Utah; cripple that
and you cripple the state and cripple the
resources of the people. In our petitions
and letters We have large number based
upon this subject; the bankers, the bust
ness men, those who have the welfare of
the state at heart. call your attention to
the fact that the injuring Of this industry
is infiicting great blow upon all other
industries of our state. The report re-
cites complaints which 1t is said were
MADE to MN by some OF the small farmers
of Summit county. Summit county is one
of the small counties OF Utah. but in it are
some of the great mines of the nation If
40 per cent of the business of its county