The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1914-07-03
FORESTRY DEPARTMENT
PREVENTS STOCK Loss
How the Government Proposes to Reduce
the Loss Which Adds Millions of
Dollars to Peoples Meat Bill

stock bred on the open range OF the
west is lost before it reaches market
age and that much of this loss can be
stopped is shown by results reported
from the national forests. This waste
is said to add millions Of dollars to the
peoples meat bill and gives one more
cause to the high cost of living. Win
ter storms and summer droughts strew
the ranges with the bones of cattle and
sheep; predatory animals take heavy
toll; poisonous plants sometimes kill
half the animals in a herd almost over
night. Cattle contract anthrax, black
leg and other diseases, get stuck in
bog holes, slip eff icy hillsides; and
sheep pile up and die Of suffocation.
Insects which madden and kill swell the
total losses as do a multitude OF other
minor causes Of death and injury.
If any OF the animals to be grazed
upon a national forest seem to be suf-
fering from disease, the stock is sub
jected to rigid inspection by the
federal bureau Of animal industry be-
fore it is allowed to enter the forest.
If an animal grazing on the forest de-
velopes suspicious symptoms the per
mittee is requested to remove it. The
carcasses OF animals dying from infec-
tious or communicable diseases must
be buried or burned. preferably the
latter. To protect their stock against
blackleg permittees are encouraged to
use vaccine furnished free by the de-
partment of agriculture. Sheep suffer
ing from scab or from lip and leg dis
eases are barred from the forests until
they have been treated in conformity
with the requirements Of the bureau Of
animal industry. This cooperation be-
tween the two bureaus has made it
possible to keep the forest ranges re-
markedly free from all forms OF stock
disease.
The settlement and development of
the west does not appear to have great
ly reduced the number Of animals
which prey upon domestic live stock,
and the loss from that source alone
runs into the millions of dollars each
year. Within the forests. however, the
number Of domestic animals killed has
been appreciably reduced by the cam
paign against wild animals waged by
the officers Of the service. During the
past eight years forest officers have
killed over thirty-fve thousand pre-
datory animals, consisting Of coyotes,
wolves, bear, mountain lion, wild cats,
lynx etc.
The losses due to poisonous plants
have been in the aggregate the most
numerous and the most difficult to
guard against. Stockmen knew gen.
orally that certain flats or valleys or
hillside slopes could not be used for
grazing without heavy losses of stock,
but there was much doubt as to wha
caused the loss. Gradually it was de-
termined that the losses were due to
the various species of plants. Later it
was learned that in most instances these
plants while extremely poisonous during
certain periods of the year, were COM
paratively innoxious during the remain
der Of the grazing season. The forest
officers determined the various plant
species which cause death or injury Of
live stock, the periods during which
each species is dangerous, and the
areas OF forest land upon which the
plants are sufficiently abundant to cause
losses OF stock. The next step was to
devise ways and means of preventing
the losses. Where definite information
is obtainable the outer limits of the
poison areas are marked by warning
placards which give the name of the
poisonous plant, the kind Of stock to
which it is injurious, and the period
during which it is most harmful. With
this warning, stockmen are enabled to
SO handle their stock as to prevent the
occupancy Of the poison area during its
danger period. In cases where the
areas Of poisonous plants are compar-
atively small the permittees have been
encouraged to fence them, material for