330 GRAZING INDICATORS. 



sacrifice and without interfering with the breeding stock. In good years the 

 number of steers can be increased and in bad years decreased. 



"To provide against loss in extremely bad years, some kind of roughage to 

 supplement the range forage, for feeding with cottonseed cake or other con- 

 centrated feed, would be a decided advantage on southwestern ranges. Feed- 

 ing cottonseed cake to calves weaned during the late •fall, winter, and early 

 spring is an important factor in cutting down loss and increasing the size of 

 the stock, as well as in increasing the calf crop. Where this is done, young 

 calves can be taken from poor cows, thus reducing loss from starvation among 

 both cows and calves and stimulating earlier breeding." 



The value of coyote-proof fences for sheep pastures and range lambing- 

 grounds has been studied by Jardine (1908, 1911). His conclusions are that 

 the carrying capacity under this system is about 100 per cent higher than 

 under the ordinary one, and that the percentage of lambs is higher, the sheep 

 are much better, the loss almost nothing, and the expense of handling materi- 

 ally decreased. The advantages of the "bedding-out," "blanket" or "burro" 

 system of herding sheep have been studied by Jardine, Fleming, and Douglas, 

 and have been summarized by Jardine and Anderson (1919: 50). The latter 

 have given the most complete account available of the management of cattle 

 and of sheep on the ranges of the national forests, with respect to the range 

 as well as the herd (pp. 30, 49). 



ESSENTIALS OF A GRAZING POLICY. 



A proper land system. — It has long been recognized by students of grazing 

 that overgrazing and its attendant evils were the result of an unfortunate 

 land policy. This fact has never been understood by the public, even in the 

 West, and it is but recently that the stockmen themselves have realized it. 

 A large portion of the country still holds the vague opinion that the West 

 contains the possibility of unlimited homesteads, a delusion which western 

 politicians and real-estate dealers have found it profitable to encourage. It 

 is a national misfortune that the entire open range was not brought under 

 adequate control at the time when the conservation movement was at its 

 height, as the West contained few resources of greater importance. At 

 present, every competent and disinterested student of the situation realizes 

 that an adequate and just leasing system furnishes the only economic solu- 

 tion of the problem. The administration of the grazing lands upon the 

 national forests has convinced the vast majority of stockmen of the advantages 

 of leasing or allotment, and has dissipated the fears that the "little man" 

 would suffer under such a system. In spite of this, public opinion has hardly 

 advanced beyond that of the days of the "cattle kings, " who were more or less 

 justly regarded as the foes of the homesteader. This is not to be regarded as 

 strange in view of the failure of the West to comprehend the grazing industry 

 as perhaps its major problem. When the West realizes, and causes both 

 public and lawmakers to realize that half a billion acres of its land can 

 never be used profitably for anything but grazing, it will become possible to 

 enact the necessary legislation for an intelligent economic and social treatment 

 of the public domain, such as was provided in the Kent grazing bill of 1913. 



Essentials.— Coville (1898) and Smith (1899: 43) have pointed out the es- 

 sentials of a proper land system with respect to the needs of grazing, and 

 Smith has summarized these as follows: 



