Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1911-02-11
Grazing Examiners for National Forests.

Grazing Examiners for National Forests.
A new Government position is dis
closed by the announcement by the U.
S. Civil Service Commission of an ex-
animation which will be held February
% and "a to find three grazing examin-
ers for the Forest Service. The posi-
tions will pay salary of 81, 200 a year
at entrance.
The announcement specifies that the
applicants must be men, at least 20 years
old, and possessed of at least one sea-
sons experience in handling range
stock, together with at least one year of
technical training in specified botanical
studies.
The establishment of this position is
in line with the objects which the De-
partment of Agriculture has always had
in view in its management of grazing on
the National Forests. 1t is not merely
seeking to prevent cattle and sheep from
doing damage to forest growth and
watershed conditions, as they Craze on
the herbage which is yearly produced in
the open forests, parks, and high noun
tain meadows within National Forests.
Range-fed stock are matter of decided
importance to the American people in
these days of rising prices for food pro-
ducts and diminishing supplies, in pro-
portion to population, of live stock;
and therefore Secretary Wilson intends
that every acre of National Forest range
shall be made to produce as much forage
as it is capable of doing, consistently
with the carrying out of the other pur-
poses for which the National Forests are
maintained.
Ever since the Forest Service took
over the management of the National
Forests, it has been studying the range
problem along with its regulation of
grazing. In the beginning it was con-
fronted with the fact that very large
part of the range had been badly abused
and depleted through the competition
of rival owners before any restrictions
had been put upon them, and by over
crowding and bad methods of handling
stock. Its supporting power had in con-
sequence been greatly reduced, and was
steadily declining. To enable over
grazed areas to recuperate, and to pre-
vent the extension of overgrazed condi-
tions to new areas, the amount of stock
to be allowed on the Forests was every
where carefully prescribed. The results
we're then observed, and if it appeared
that there was still over-use of the range,
the numbers permitted were cut down
still further. On the other hand, where
recuperation has taken place the allow
ance of stock has been correspondingly
increased.
The proposal to appoint specialists
who are both thoroughly trained botan.
lists and men of practical experience in
range matters, indicates recognition o.
the fact that to attain the highest point
of range productivity the best scientific
knowledge must be applied to the study
of the problems of forage production
and utilization AS stock Craze on the
range, the effect on the different kinds
of vegetation differs both with its pala
bility or unpalatability and with it,
capacity to produce seed, its time o
seeding, it's resistance to trampling, III
manner of growth, and many other ele
ments.
What is aimed at now is nothing les
than to find out all the things on which
depend the production of the larges
amount of the beef, mutton, wool, anC
hides on a given area. This involves
learning how both to restrict and Il
time the grazing so as not to interfer,
with the reproduction of the most valu
able elements in the forage crop, how Il
prevent unnecessary loss Of feed through
trampling and in other ways, how Il
prevent the loss Of forage which result