THE GRASS LANDS 165 



of the range land that could be more profitably used by sheep 

 and cattle. The result of this is that much of the Indian Service 

 land is overgrazed by stock which yields no profit. 



All these many government activities were based on two 

 ideas: first, that by providing loans the farmer, the rancher, and 

 the Indian could be saved from poverty; second, the land would 

 be saved by requiring that the borrowed money be spent for 

 land-use practices which would aid rather than destroy the soil. 



This control over loans is very different from the usual 

 methods of banks. Private bankers, insurance companies, and 

 the federal land banks had, before the depression, lent a large 

 sum of money to farmers and ranchers with the usual security, 

 the land and buildings of the borrower. The lenders did not 

 make any effort to protect their security, the land, by insisting 

 that the land users manage it wisely. The result was that when 

 the depression came the borrowers who had been bleeding their 

 land could not repay the loans, and the lenders found them 

 selves with nothing but worn-out soil to pay for their loans. 

 And they frequently could get that only after the police or 

 militia had been called out to drive the land users from their 

 homes. The mere right to seize a man's land was no security 

 for a loan. 



FOREST SERVICE CONTROL OF RANGE LAND 



The whole movement for the protection of our natural re 

 sources grew out of the demand that the destruction of our 

 forests be stopped. One of the first results of this movement 

 was the establishment of the federal Forest Service, which was 

 created to manage large areas of public land reserved as national 

 forests. Much of this land was also used for grazing, so it is 

 little wonder that the Forest Service was one of the first agencies 

 to work on range conservation. 



This is how the Forest Service approached the problem of 

 grass. It told the ranchers that it would issue permits for them 



