The Coconino sun., 1916-12-29


Forests and go to the Indian Reser-
walton instead, but are hampered by
the drastic regulations governing the
transfer of their holdings on the For
ests.
The Forest Service has to this time
expended hundreds of thousands of
dollars to perfect and maintain
system for preventing and fighting
forest fires, yet this would not be a
drop in the bucket" to what would
have to be expended were it not for
the live stock that keep the excess
under cover and grass down to point
where the spread of fire is minimized.
These areas would not be forests, but
firetraps instead, which means a dir
ect saving to the Government of vast
sums of money in actual cash besides
an incalculable amount of valuable
timber. / understand that the service
is seriously considering the placing
of live stock in parts of some Forests
where they do not now Craze, as the
cheapest and most effective way of
combating that greatest of all mena-
ces to a forest, Fire.
The Forest Service has spent thou
sands of dollars in an exhaustive study
of the timber business, which goes
into great detail as to the cost of
logging, the cost of transportation,
the cost of milling, the depreciation
on the plant and rolling stock, capital
invested and interest on same and
then sells the timber so that the ma
nufacturer can have a fair profit,
which to my mind is sensible and fair.
Has the stock man ever had such
study made of his business?
No. Yet the department has more
than doubled the present rate on live
stock and has set the last date of
hearing for February /, 1917.
The semi-arid States of the West
must always be the great breeding
ground of the United States. Ma
tional Forests in these states will
therefore always be a very important
factor in the production of live stock
and its products. The Forests now
embrace the high timber land prin-
cipally adapted for summer use as a
grazing ground and they to not con-
troll winter forage land in sufficient
quantity to support the summer areas
and they are fully utilized now only
because the wool growers find winter
pasture far removed from the sum-
mer areas.
With the $40 A. homestead bill,
with the constantly increasing diff
Guilty experienced in trailing to their
winter range, the time cannot be far
distant when there will be grazed on
the Forests only that amount of stock
that can winter on the lands imme-
diately adjacent to it, therefore l am
of the opinion that the department
should be urged to protect their sum-
mer areas by including enough winter
range to support them.
When this is done and the Govern
ment obtains control of the land and
water now owned by the stock men
then and not until then, in my opinion,
can the grazing resources of the Ma
tional Forests be successfully COM
mercialized in a manner that will re-
bound to the public good.
The Forest Service has promulgat-
ed and have now in force regulated
system of grazing on their Forests of
which they may justly be proud, COW
ering an almost unbelievable range Of
conditions as wide as this great coun-
try itself. This has been possible
through the very closest cooperation
of the stock men and the service, a
condition enjoyed in no other branch
of the Government service irrespect-
i've of its age or worth. Shall this
most beneficial condition be destroyed
by placing this proposed arbitrary ad-
vance upon the grazing resources of
our National Forests without that
measure of consideration and study
as is employed in other Forest COM
modities?
The cooperation and support ex-
tended the Service in the past shows
most conclusively that the stock men
not only do not fear but favor the
regulation of their business based
upon fairness and "the great good to
the greatest number" but they do
fear regulation such as this proposed
one, based, it pleases me to believe,
on prejudice and misinformation in
asking the stock men to pay the in
terest on a Government investment of
increasing value to the whole people.
Very truly yours,
E. H. CRABB.
Flagstaff, Arizona, Dc. a, 1916.