Williams news., 1903-12-05
THE SHEEP OF THE NORTH.
A CattIeman's Comparison of Present
 And Past Conditions.

In an interview with some of the sheep men whose focks are in the valley or on the way here, it was stated not long ago in the Repub- lican that there would be 100000 sheep in the valley in the course of the winter and that part of them were coming from New Mexico. It was also stated by the sheep men that there were no cattle north of the valley.
 Regarding the latter statement, James E. Bark, one of the most ex- tensive cattle owners in this part of the territory, said yesterday: "To very great extent that is true, al- though every water hole is still claimed, cleaned and kept up by some cattleman and all the range adjacent thereto is stocked by cattle belonging to that owner. In days previous to the influx of sheep from the north the cattleman had 100 to ten or less that he has now. He has to cut his herd to just what cattle can live off his range after the sheep have eaten it off as they leave nothing but the trees and the few cattle he has on his range eat the higher branches off the few trees still alive. It does not pay to keep cattle under these conditions and the cattlemen will soon have to quit.
 "Previous to sheep from the north denuding the ranges north and east of the valley there were many doz- CT. cattlemen, each paying more taxes than all the sheepmen paid into this county in 1902. In 1902 the sheepmen claimed that they had 100000 sheep in the vicitity of Phoenix and we believe that it was true. But what became of them when they became to be assessed?"
 MT. Bark then produced some figures from the office of the treas urer. showing the number of sheep from the various counties which were assessed in this county: Apache, 12,4OO; Navajo, 2S,6OO; Coconino. $500; in all 6O,7OO. It was also shown that the taxes on these sheep amounted to $99.S5.
 Continued MT. Bark: "Sheep even coming from New Mexico. When will these four-footed locusts cease their annual descent upon us? And will Texas, Utah, Colorado and Wyoming add their quota of sheep in destroying our forests, ,tramping the watersheds of each little stream until the blessed rain when it comes can no more penetrate it than it could sack of flour, but cuts gullies into it and washes it into the streams leaving nothing but barren and hard sub- soil or bedrock on which nothing can grow and destroying the great est reservoir Salt River ever had or ever will have.
 Ask any of the old-timers who were here before the sheep came into the watershed. Ask them how long our river would hold at the flood stage after rain? Why it used to be months. Now if we have la freshet in the river it is almost |one-fourth silt and the next morn ling it is gone.
 "Yes, the sheepmen say but you do not have as much rain as you used to have' Go to the Weather Bureau and see if we don't. There has been but little if any change within the last twelve or fifteen years.
 'The sheep here have nearly de- stroyed the ranges of the north which they call their own, and by the way, upon which they graze only three months. from May to September, and the balance of the year they are either coming south or going back north or camped along our foothills, never still, for ever tramping with their sharp pointed hoofs destroying all vege. tation of the great watershed of the Solf l fc h,, fo