The border vidette., 1909-05-22
AIIottIns Stock on National Forest.

nected with the administration or mat ters upon the National Forest that comes closer home to the stockmsn than the system under which the num- Der of stock each man may graze is de- termined by the Supervisors.
 New settlers locating in the country adjacent to the National Forest are nearly all desirous of entering the stock business either as cattle raisers or sheep growers.
 In order that they may moro suc- cessfully handle their stock, they ap- ply to the Forest Service for a permit to enter the nearest Forest, which very likely, is already stocked to it's fullest capacity. The question then before the Supervisors, with whom the applications are filed, is how to accom- modate these new settlers without in jury to those already occupying the range.
 There is one fixed and immutable point in this entire proposition which can not be changed except through improvement Of the ranges, and that is, the number of stock which a given area will support. When the forest ranges are carrying the full number of stock which they safely can. the only thing that can be done to meet the de- mand for new settlers is to reduce the number which any one man eau range and give the new settler the bsnefit of this reduction.
 ca one of the National Forests in the State of Wyoming at the time it was created six years ago. the area was supporting large number of sheep which were owned by few large com panies and individuals. The little man was almost an unknown factor in that | region. The largest owner was graz ing some sixty thousand head of sheep. which was forty seven per cent of the total number on the Forest. The next | y year there were a number of settlers who desired to enter the Forest whose claims were legitimate and in order to admit them a sliding scale reduction WAS made upon all owners over and | above a certain number, the surplus being allowed to the new men to enter the Forest.
 Each succeeding year more new set tiers desired to grazs there sheep and cattle on that Forest and the same system was followed to obtain the necessary room for these new men un- til, at the beginning of the present grazing season. the man who six years ago owned forty-seven per cent of the stock had been reduced in number un- til he was grazing but 10. 900 head of i sheep, which was about four per cent of the total number on the Forest. In the mean time the number of individ- uals and firms grazing stock in that Forest has gre .tly increased until there are almost three times as many men using the range as were at the time of it's creation as National Forest This certainly proves that the govern D0ht buV Forest range solely for the big com panies. to the exclusion of the small owners and new settlers.
 For the years 1909 thore were thir- ty-two new settlers who desired to en- ter particular Forest with their stock, but with the reductions made upon the older users it was impossi ble to take care of but five of them; and while the older users complain of the reductions necessary to meet this de- mand from the new men, the new men also complain because they are not all lowed larger number at the begin hing. One of the basic principals in handling grazing matter on the Ma tional Forest is that it is better to help 6 small man make 8 living than a big man make a profit
 The policy of the Forest Service in | m king these reductions and restric- tons is not to injure any person nor to allow the new men to enter the For est with such large number as will l Decessitate unnecessarily large reduc- | tions to meet them The number all lowed each individual is believed to be that which will furnish a modest in co ale to a man sufficient to enable him | ta hlish his homa supnort and