REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE. 73 



tive use most of the land has lost a large part of its original forage- 

 producing value, 



PUBLIC RANGES SHOULD BE USED AND IMPROVED. 



These open public ranges have played a conspicuous part in the 

 picturesque history of the livestock industry of the West. Their 

 deterioration represents, in the aggregate, an enormous loss in the 

 natural resources on which only the industry can be maintained. 

 Furthermore, the free and open status of these lands injects a large 

 element of instabilit)^ and uncertainty into the livestock business. 

 The production of livestock under western conditions normally re- 

 quires ranch lands where hay is grown for winter feeding and avail- 

 able areas of low open range for spring, or spring and fall, grazing, 

 as well as other available areas of higher range for summer grazing. 

 In many cases at the present time but two elements in this year- 

 round program are assured, the privately owned ranch with its 

 winter forage and the summer range in the national forest admin- 

 istered by the Department of Agriculture. During the intervening 

 seasons, which may comprise one-third or more of the year, the 

 stockman must hazard the safety of his herds and the success of his 

 business upon the availability of open ranges on the public domain 

 over which he has no control and for which he must compete in a 

 general scuffle, with no administration by the Government. 



In some cases national forest ranges have been of necessity over- 

 grazed, and particularly grazed too early in the year, on account of 

 the pressure from local ranchmen whose old spring range on open 

 public lands is largely gone. In other words, unregulated spring 

 range has become the neck of the bottle. Winter feed and summer 

 pasturage are available for more stock than can be subsisted during 

 the interval unless the spring range on the open domain can be pro- 

 tected from overgrazing and utilized in a coordinated way with the 

 other and stable factors in the round of the year. 



To restore and perpetuate one of the great natural resources of the 

 West and at the same time to reduce the losses and uncertainties in 

 western livestock production, the remaining open public ranges 

 should be placed under a form of supervision analogous to that of 

 the Department of Agriculture over the range lands within the 

 national forests. The main objects of this administration should be 



