TEE IRRIGA TION A GE. 317 



ments issued an order excluding the sheep, but were induced to revoke 

 this action for the time being or during the current year to enable a 

 more thorough investigation to be had, because of legal reasons and 

 a reluctance to arbitrarily, without compensation and a reasonable 

 time for adjustment, destroy this part of the grazing industry. 



Some of the arguments presented pro and con are as follows: 



The irrigationists claim that the sheep eating off the grass and 

 underbrush on the watershed which supplies the irrigated valleys, al- 

 lows the moisture to run off in floods on the surface instead of gradu- 

 ally, as would be the case if held in suspension by the brush and grass, 

 and therefore all these flood waters are lost for irrigating purposes. 



To which the grazers reply, that there are no surface streams on 

 the plateaus grazed and that the sooner the rain and snow sinks into 

 the ground the longer it will remain in subterranean reservoirs and 

 percolate out into the streams which supply the valleys below; also 

 that if the contention were true that the moisture were held in sus- 

 pension, the greater part of it would be lost by evaporation, and es- 

 pecially in the winter time, when by freezing by night and thawing in 

 the day, three feet of snow has been known to gradually disappear 

 and leave dust on the ground; also that but a small portion of the 

 area grazed sheds into the irrigated valleys, and that much of it has 

 no underbrush. 



The farmers contend that since grazing has been permitted in the 

 northern forests contiguous to the streams which supply the valleys 

 the water supply has been gradually growing less. 



To which the grazer replies that very few more sheep are being 

 grazed now than there were eight years ago, and that the drouth of 

 the last two years is abnormal and that the demand for water in the 

 valley has grown greater and that much more of the supply is now 

 diverted than formerly; that there are now sixteen ditches on the 

 upper Verde dividing water where ten years ago there were but three. 



The forestry preservation association contends that grazing de- 

 stroys young trees, although the scientists of this association do not 

 claim that sheep eat pine and cedar except when in a starving con- 

 dition. 



The grazers reply that the destruction of tree growth is reduced 

 to a minimum in the greater part of the area grazed because there is 

 practically no underbrush and young growth, and that the three great 

 saw mills and several smaller ones destroy more tree growth in one 

 year than double the number of sheep now grazed would in ten years. 



The farmers, if it can be proved that their water supply is being 

 diminished even in a very inconsiderable degree as a result of grazing, 

 have proper cause for alarm and are justified in adopting every pos- 

 sible measure for protection. At the same time the grazing industry 

 is very important to the northern tier of counties and contributes a 



