The Glenwood post., 1922-01-05

prepared by the United States Departmen
OF AEriculturo)
The utilization of the range In the
national forests of the West for the pro
duction of wool, beef. mutton and porl
is steadily increasing from year tc
year. Ranchers and stockmen are
manifestIng growing appreciation Of
the advantages afforded by govern
ment pasturage. And in the same de
gree they are all too frequently neg
lecting their stock after 1t Is turned
out on the mountain ranges, state Off
Gals of the United States Department
of Agriculture.
On all open ranges there are many
losses from predatory animals, poison.
Gus plants, disease and accidents, and
similar dangers. Unless owners of live
stock campaign intelligently and perse-
vertngIy against such sources Of disas-
ter. their herds and flocks usually suf-
fer mortality of from 5 to 6 per cent
yearly. To Illustrate, one ranchman
grazed 100 head of cattle last sum-
mer on national forest without a
head Of steers worth $50 each.
Mortality High Last Year.
Last year In forest district g.. which
includes California and western Ne
vada. the total live stock mortality in
II forests amounted to 1,151 cattle, 5
horses and $40 sheep. The total num-
Der Of permittees who used the federal
grazing lands aggregated $500. They
grazed 234.415 cattle and horses, $685.
800 sheep and goats and $500 hogs on
the forest ranges. Two hundred and
seventy-tive cattle died of disease; 300
cattle and 1.4G2 sheep were killed by
eating poisonous plants; 81 cattle, s
horses and 2,745 sheep were killed by
predatory animals. and 1856 cattle and
1888 sheep succumbed to accidents
and miscellaneous causes of death.
This matter of live stock losses on
such Importance that the United States
forest service made detailed survey
of the specific causes of mortality
among live stock In the Stanislaus for
est of California during recent year.
During the period under discussion a
total of 1871 head of live stock out of
the 10000 animals pastured In the for
est lost their lives. The manner in
which these losses were distributed
should be of value to stockmen and
ranchers who are interested In curtail-
Ing these losses and who are anxious
to know what the weak points In their
present methods of management are.
The losses among cattle were distrib-
uted as follows:
Under one year old from blackleg,
50; over one year old from blackleg,
81: calves. loss Of mother from lark
spur poisoning. 10; cattle losses from
larkspur, So; other poisons, 81 preda-
tory animals. 20: accident. SO; in calv-
ing, IA; lost, strayed or stolen, "a:
from anthrax. 2: from eating giant
powder from railroad construction
camp. 8: from neck-and-spine disease,
10; killed by hunters. 2; blind, aged.
crippled and ruptured, 4 losses from
contagious abortion. 122; from lack Of
proper food and starvation, IA. and
Check Predatory Animals.
The losses from predatory animals
are being checked as rapidly as the
federal agencies for this work are
able to cope with the situation. When
ever the forest rangers note that the
predatory animals are causing heavy
damage, professional hunters are sent
to destroy them. The losses due to
disease and accident and miscellane-
Gus causes could be substantially de-
creased II more herders were employed
by the owners. Under conditions which
obtain on the national forest ranges
one or two herders could handle from
I'VE hundred to thousand cattle with
out particular difficulty. On the same
scale that 1t pays to herd sheep on the
government ranges 1t also Is profit
able to herd cattle and, potentially.
permittecs probably will come to this
decision Of their own accord.
Poisonous pinnts--and particularly
larkspmr--are Responsible annually for
large losses r live stock throughout
the western states. There Is only one
effective system OF Kidding the ranges
II iarkspur and that is to grub the
plnnts out season after season until
finally the range will be free Of this
. Objectionable growth.
The experiences Of 4 certain rancher
whose range abuts one Of the Califor-
MIA national forests. and who, under
the supervision Of the United States
forest service. has been waging A:win-
Ming nght against larkspur during the
Last four years. are illuminative ID this
regard. After careful trial and study
II the control methods and the results,
thts stockmaa y enthusiastic about the
edlcisacy Il he plan and b urGeS ev-
. cry oehoe rancAoe o. oeockman who
owqs safsstsd range to Givs the system