Destruction and Deterioration 119 



the topography, the character of the forest, and 

 many other conditions. A detailed study of these 

 considerations would far exceed the limitations of 

 this volume. 



Another factor in the struggle for life of the 

 American forests has hardly yet been mentioned. 

 That is the injury done by the pasturing of domes- 

 tic animals. This source of injury is neither so 

 wide-spread nor so picturesque as the damage done 

 by fire. Yet in some localities it is an equally 

 great obstacle to profitable forest cultivation. In 

 the Lake region it is of comparatively small im- 

 portance, for the reason that the tracts where the 

 farm cattle go are usually among those which will 

 soon be cleared and converted into fields. But in 

 the mountain forests of the Rockies and the Paci- 

 fic coast, where immense herds of cattle and sheep 

 are pastured, the injury done to the small trees by 

 the biting off of young shoots, the tearing down of 

 branches, and the trampling down of seedlings is 

 enormous. In the great forest reserves recently 

 set apart in that section by the federal government, 

 the herding of animals is now permitted only under 

 strict rules designed to reduce the damage to a 

 minimum, to the great disgust, however, of the 

 cattle owners, who, like other people, can see but 

 their own interests and cannot be convinced that 

 other people, and especially the nation as a whole, 

 have rights in the matter. In the Alleghany region, 

 and especially those portions which are thinly set- 

 tled by a poor and ignorant class of farmers, but 



