El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1916-01-27
SHEEP CRAZE At
SIDE Of CATTLE
Millions of Steep and Cattle
on the National Forest
Reserves in West.

Eight million sheep and 100000
! cattle grazed on the national forest
reserves during 1915. W. c. Barnes, Of
] Tucson. Ariz, assistant u ;. forester
/ told the live stock convention Wed
/ nesdsy-
] He said in part:
, During the grazing season which
! has Just ended, the relations eNlstlnS
( between the forest service and the
: sfoclrnpn using the forests have con-
| tinued to be extremely agreeable Ine
/ few cases of discomfort which may
/ naturally be expected Where theIe ar
! more than 10000 separate perhltees
/ grazing all classes OF domestic AMI
/ mails over a region extending from the
/ Canadian to the Mexican line are IN
| great measure due either to a mis-
/ understanding OF the poicles uhaer
/ which the national FOREST areas 81 s
/ now being administered for grazing
! purposes or else the natural inciina-
9 tiOn OF the individual to object 10 any
: kind OF supervision even though II Is
meant for his own good
General Grazing Conditions.
I'VE have Just finished reviewing
l the annual reports from the forest
/ supervisor covering the grazing on
I the 155 national forests OF over SUM-
600 sheep and goats and z'OoO-VuV cat
tie and horses during the grazing sea
( son Of 1915 and with few exceptions
I these reports indicate that the stock
men have experienced one OF the pest
: seasons Of the last decade
Taking the country covered by the
national forests as a whole. with the
: exception of the extreme southwest IN
: Texas New Mexico and Arizona. and
! the western part Of Montana, Where
the summer rains were rather ABOVE
normal an unusually dry season was
experienced
Are Satisfied.
eve are satisfied that this eondl-
I tion was in great part brought ABOUT
I by closer attention to their stock on
: the part OF the permittees, owing to
( the fear that the drought conditions
1 were going to bring injury both TO the
/ ranges and their stock. rms lact
( proves conclusively that where owners
. take sufficient interest and are aliVe
! to the situation, losses among live
! stock on the open ranges may not al
: ways be entirely eliminated but GER
tainly can be greatly reduced
Cooperation.
.aTbls too has been an unusually sat
isfactory year for the cooperation LOT
I which we have been striving between
the permittees and the service IN the
handling of their stock. The fesula-
ton which went into effect year OF
two ago by which the service under
took to cooperate with stock assocla-
tons in the erection and maintenance
Of drift fences, improvement IN wa
ter supply building Of stock trans, ana
and better bulls has been extremely
Sailing Question.
The question of sailing, which mas
always been a very live one on the
open ranges, is rapidly being settled
through these associations. Many OF
/ them are now purchasing the salI
| through the officials Of the associa-
tion who obtain it in large lots ana
contract to have il placed directly on
the sailing grounds. thus relieving the
individual of all responsibility for the
work
again some Of the associations
have taken up the question of bulls
in a very public spirited manner. On
the Helena National Forest in the
state OF Montana and in several other
forests the bulls are the property OF
the association, purchased through the
advisory board Of the association ana
placed upon the forest range under
its direction
Meat Demand strong.
with the demand for meat products
as strong as it is and the ranges IN
most of the forests practically stocked
to the limit Of safety. Ii is not al
ways possible TO increase the permit
ted number, but we believe 1t Is very
possible to increase individual weight
Of every steer turned off the national
, forest ranges to such an extent tnat
the total will add immensely not only
TO the stockman's profit but to the
. wealth Of the nation
rscrub Must Co.
: 'fThe forest service feel that the
time is now ripe to adopt the slogan
the scrub must 60 and the results
so far obtained through this coopera-
ton between the service and its per-
mitees prove that we have made eX-
ceedingly good progress IN starting
! him on his way.
sheep and Cattle Craze Together.
"On several Of our forests the cat
| tlemen, realizing that there are GER
tain classes of forage on many OF the
ranges which are not palatable 10 cat
tie, but are greedily grazed BY sneep'
, have dubbed together TO purchase
! small bands Of sheep which they are
now running on the same ranges used
by their cattle in order to utilize every
possible acre.
! Improved Conditions.
From every point our reports Ten
, ! OF a constant improvement in the
Z grazing conditions on the forest re-
+ serves and a slow but steady increase
/, in the numbers OF stock authorized 10
: use them.
Z Federal Range Reserves.
! Since the last annual meetlnS OF
/, ! this association the scope Of the work
! | OF the forest service has been via i,
p I ened and its activities increased
| through congressional action py
! which We have taken over the admin
istration Of two large open range areas
used wholly for grazing purposes Tor
the purpose of carrying on series oil
+ practical experiments covering sIa1 .s
, : Of cattle upon open range Ihese I've
areas-the Santa Rita in southern Ari-
IONA, consisting of about $4,000 acres
( and the tornado. in southern New
> Mexico covering 100000 acres, were SET
aside some years ago by pIesit "a
! proclamation and turned over % me
bureea Of plant industry for such in
= vestigations into the plant lie upon
2 them as seemed advisable
Arizona Range
, 'sThe work on the Arizona range mas
not vet reached a point where 1t Is
! fully developed. but on the tornado
; we have everything running IN = eS-
I cellent shape. with little over SVU t
head of weu bred cattle win N me-
20 carry on the various eNperlnleh ts
. Interesting Problems on Grazing.