62 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



part by conditioning the retention of grazing privileges upon the 

 ownership of ranch property or improvements sufficient to afford a 

 well-balanced and efficient stock-raising business. In authorizing 

 grazing privileges under these terms, provision will be made for 

 such redistribution of range use as may be necessary in the future to 

 care for needs of new settlers. 



Furthermore, while encouraging more stable use of the national 

 forest ranges in connection with the stock ranches dependent upon 

 them, the Government does not and can not, in any sense, recognize 

 ft vested right, or servitude, attaching to the use of the range. The 

 national forests are public properties, created primarily for the pro- 

 duction of timber and the protection of water sources. They must 

 be administered so as to render the maximum degree of public service 

 through wise utilization of their varied resources. If the grazing of 

 livestock in any particular locality should clearly become harmful to 

 the regrowth of timber or the security of valuable water resources, 

 the department must be able to reduce or adjust the grazing use or, 

 if need be, to eliminate it altogether. If the economic development 

 of particular regions requires reduction in the herds of old users to 

 make room for the livestock of settlers who need range in developing 

 their homes, the department must have full authority to make such 

 redistribution of the grazing privileges as the circumstances require. 

 The value of the range must be protected, even if that should at times 

 require reduced grazing or a complete temporary withdrawal from 

 use. Adjustments for these purposes should be made only after full 

 consideration of their effect upon interested parties ; but the depart- 

 ment must retain a free hand to deal with problems or conflicts of 

 this nature as the most vital interests to be served may dictate, and 

 it can not be hampered in such adjustments by the creation of any 

 servitudes on the land which have the nature of vested rights. Within 

 this essential limitation, it is the purpose of the Department of Agri- 

 culture to stabilize the use of the national forest ranges in connection 

 with established and dependent stock ranches to the fullest prac- 

 ticable degree. 



GRAZING FEES. 



The question of the fees paid for grazing privileges has an impor- 

 tant bearing upon the policy of stabilizing range use. Most of the 

 range areas now embraced in national forests were grazed for many 



