KEPORT OF THE SECEETARY. 241 



During the next five years such advice was given, to the extent of 

 the resources available. Field parties were sent out to study the 

 forest conditions and gather the data necessary for the preparation 

 of plans of management. The fundamental problem was to know 

 how use might be so regulated as to insure perpetuation and even 

 improvement of the resources concerned, along with the largest imme- 

 diate returns consistent with permanence. There were recognized 

 three major resources to be both used and safeguarded — timber, 

 water, and range. 



The most immediately urgent part of the problem was, on the 

 whole, that relating to the range. Because of the harm done both 

 to forest growth and to water flows by overgrazing, all these resources 

 were to some extent at stake; grazing could not be dealt with as a 

 matter of forage production solely. From the nature of the range- 

 stock industry and because of the general economic conditions which 

 existed throughout most of the West, it had come about that while 

 the demand for national-forest timber was exceedingly restricted 

 and almost entirely local, the forage crop was almost everj^where in 

 great demand. Sheep and cattle competed with each other for the 

 summer feed found in the forest-clad mountains, and rival sheepmen 

 and cattlemen competed among themselves. Much of the range had 

 become so overcrowded as to cause serious impairment of its carry- 

 ing capacity, and the evil was thus accentuated. Progressive deterio- 

 ration threatened to wipe out both the forage resource and most of 

 the stock industry dependent upon it. Hand in hand with range 

 depletion went damage to water supplies, inflicting hardships upon 

 settlers in the valleys and imperiling the welfare of great regions. 

 Forest growths also were seriously affected. The belief was common 

 that conditions required the exclusion of all sheep from many, at 

 least, of the National Forests. 



In the first year or two of administrative control, however, a policy 

 of regulation was entered upon. Largel}^ as a result of the expert 

 advice given by scientifically trained men of this department, the 

 beginnings of systematic grazing control were developed. It was 

 obvious that only specialized knowledge of range vegetation and of 

 grazing methods could constitute a basis for devising such an adjust- 

 ment of use to existing conditions as would serve to restore the carry- 

 ing power of the range without undue disturbance of the established 

 stock industry. Experience soon proved that mere assistance in 

 devising an administrative policy was not adequate to meet the needs 

 of the situation. Expert knowledge was needed also in carrying the 

 policy into effect. It was perception of this fact which led the Com- 

 missioner of the General Land Office and the Secretary of the 

 Interior to urge the transfer of the National Forests to the Depart- 



70481°— AGK 1912 16 



