TRAMPLING BY SHEEP. 71 



the fodder plants themselves, is very serious indeed. 

 The sheep men of the West are commonly accused of 

 setting- many forest fires to improve the grazing, and 

 they are also vigorously defended from this charge. 

 But the fact remains that large areas where sheep now 

 graze would be covered with forests except for the 

 action of more or less recent fires. 



FIG. 66. Cattle in the Bighorn Forest Reserve, Wyoming. 

 TRAMPLING. 



Trampling is the second way in which grazing ani- 

 mals injure the forest. Cattle and horses do compara- 

 tively little harm, although their hoofs compact the soil 

 and often tear loose the slender rootlets of small trees. 

 Sheep, on the contrary, are exceedingly harmful, espe- 

 cially on steep slopes and where the soil is loose. In 

 such places their small, sharp hoofs cut and powder the 

 soil, break and overthrow the young trees, and often 

 destroy promising young forests altogether. (See Pis. 



