FOREST SERVICE. 387 



Grazing Capacity op National Forests. 



Of the 150 National Forests within the United States, exclusive 

 of Alaska, on June 30, 1911, 144 were under grazing administration. 

 On the Santa Rosa National Forest, wliich was created after the 

 beginning of the grazing season, grazing was allowed free of charge 

 'and without permit for the remainder of the 1911 season. The 

 five other Forests are either inaccessible or lacking in forage growths, 

 and are therefore not occupied by domestic animals. 



The area under grazing administration at the close of the year 

 was less by 2,300,000 acres than at the close of the preceding year. 

 This represents a reduction of 1.39 per cent in area, but in grazing 

 capacity this percentage would be largely exceeded, as the lands 

 eliminated were chiefly lowlands of high grazing capacity and heavily 

 stocked, principally ^\^th cattle and horses. To tliis fact is largely 

 due the decrease in the amount of revenue derived from grazing 

 privileges. 



Energetic efforts on the part of the district officers in districts 1 

 and 6 to promote a fufi utilization of the surplus forage on the Forests 

 of northern Idaho, Montana, and Washington were only partially 

 successful, and enormous quantities of feed went to waste, adding 

 greatl}^ to the fire danger. More or less inaccessible and remote 

 from spring, fall, and \\dnter ranges and railroad shipping points, 

 these ranges can at present be utilized by sheep only, and flock- 

 masters, discouraged by the depression in market prices, did not 

 care to avail themselves of the inducements offered by the Forest 

 Service or the concessions granted by the railroads in the form of 

 reduced feed-in-transit rates. 



The effort to stock these ranges wiU not be relaxed, and it is 

 anticipated that eventually the surplus forage wiU be fully utilized. 

 While the demand for sheep range in some localities in district 5 is 

 greater than the supply, in general the National Forest ranges in 

 that district are not stocked to their full capacity. Some inaccessible 

 ranges on the northern Forests will be used as soon as transportation 

 becomes easier or the live-stock market improves. With these excep- 

 tions the National Forests were stocked during the first half of the 

 year to approximately their full normal grazing capacity, and it was 

 necessary to deny many applications for grazing privileges. 



During the last half of the year, the beginning of the grazing season 

 of 1911, an entirely different condition existed upon all but a few of 

 the most heavily stocked Forests. For a variety of reasons wool- 

 growers regarded the prospects immediately ahead as unfavorable, 

 and heavy shipments to market took place during the fall of 1910. 

 Everything for sale in the cattle line had been bought up during the 

 fall by buyers anxious to fill contracts, and cattle not sold were held 

 at prohibitive prices. In consequence, the numbers of stock held in 

 feed lots and on winter range were far below normal; and this, in 

 turn, resulted in a great reduction in the numbers of stock to be 

 grazed within the National Forests. With an unusually abundant 

 growth of forage available, a surplus of feed upon many Forests 

 hitherto fully stocked or even overstocked was certain. 



During the season of 1911 reductions in numbers of stock as 

 measures of Forest or watershed protection were required on only 

 seven Forests. The reductions made were: On the Manti, 2,000 head 



