FOREST SERVICE. 323 



Thousands of our permittees have been using the forest range year 

 after year from the first season when permits were issued and are 

 grazing practically on the same ranges and about the same number 

 of stock as originally. Some owners who once held permits for large 

 numbers of stock are now grazing smaller herds, but in a majority of 

 these cases the reduction is due to business changes rather than the 

 effect of national-forest regulations. Where the contrary was the 

 case, the reduction was made for the benefit of the community, with 

 a view to a fairer distribution of the grazing privileges. 



In the early days of the service, when there were yet many vacant 

 homesteads on the public domain, the policy of aiding and encourag- 

 ing new settlers by grazing permits on a near-by forest was fully 

 justified, even where it involved reductions in the herds of the larger 

 permittees. That condition, however, has changed so largely that 

 such reductions are now seldom necessary. The available agricul- 

 tural lands near or adjacent to the national forests are practically 

 gone, except here and there where they can be reclaimed through 

 irrigation projects. With this true, it is believed that the issuance 

 of 10-year permits and the creation of the exemption limit will 

 make the tenure and stability of grazing privileges as satisfactory as 

 possible, considering that the Federal Government must retain in 

 its hands the control of its property both to insure its sustained pro- 

 ductivity and to accomplish the maximum public benefits from its 

 use. 



THE UNRESERVED PUBLIC RANGES. 



No small part of the instability in the western livestock industry 

 has resulted from the unregulated use of some 175,000,000 acres of 

 open and unreserved public-range lands. Since the earliest days of 

 livestock production in the West these areas have been open-grazing 

 commons, utilized without let or hindrance on the principle of 

 " first come, first served." Except where particular stock outfits 

 have been able to control public land through the ownership of water- 

 ing places or other facilities, competitive and unrestrained use has 

 usually brought about a striking deterioration in the productivity of 

 these areas. They no longer contribute to the production of live- 

 stock products what they originally afforded or what they might 

 afford if properly grazed. 



A large number of western stockmen are dependent upon these 

 ranges for a part of the season's pasturage, but with no system of 

 allotment or control the availability of the public lands in connec- 

 tion with established ranches has become more and more of a gam- 

 bler's chance. In many cases open ranges are required for spring 

 and fall grazing by livestock whose winter feed is assured on 

 ranches and whose summer pasturage is assured on national-forest 

 allotments. In the cases of those flock masters the deterioration of 

 the open ranges and the uncertainty attending their use has become 

 an element of business instability of far-reaching proportions. 



There is a clear need for a form of public-range administration 

 which will in some degree restore their original forage-producing 

 value and afford security of use by the livestock producers most 

 equitably entitled to them, a scheme of administration more or less 

 comparable to that now applied on the national forests. No one 

 appreciates this situation more clearly than the western stockmen 



