370 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



for success in establishing, and maintaining a state forest 

 policy, and that efforts in this direction are a waste of time. 

 This is not the attitude taken by the Association. We 

 believe that it is possible to establish firm and lasting state 

 forest policies, provided the people of our state common- 

 wealths will recognize the absolute necessity of divorcing 

 forestry from politics, and the means by which it can be 



done. We hope that the results of the ten years of con- 

 structive work in Vermont will not be lost, and that at 

 some future time the independence and stability of the 

 department will again be established on a much surer 

 foundation of popular enlightenment, rather than the fickle 

 favor of a few powerful men who still worship ancient ideals 

 of government. 



STOCK LOSSES AFFECT FOOD SUPPLY 



AT this critical time when the world is approaching a 

 period of short food supply, reports from the West 

 show that the severity of the past winter caused 

 serious losses among the cattle and sheep on the ranges. 

 Stockmen throughout the West say the winter was unques- 

 tionably the worst they have experienced in twenty-five 

 years. On the Pacific Coast its equal has not been suffered 

 forfifty years. Where the snow generally does not cover the 

 range until the first of February and is gone by April, 

 the middle of last December saw the ranges buried so deep 

 that the animals could not get the forage, and storm after 

 storm followed, with no opening up until the middle of 

 May. For the average six weeks or two months period 

 when the range is deeply covered by snow, the stockman 

 feels safe if he has a ton and a half of hay for each animal. 

 With that period stretched into five months, practically 

 tripled, the usual ton and a half of feed was absolutely 

 inadequate and many animals died of starvation. 



In the Southwest the winter was unusually open, which 

 will be about as bad for that section as the heavy snows 

 were for the other sections of the West. While the heavy 

 snows cover forage, their melting gives much-needed moist- 

 ure to the soil and an abundant grass crop is the result. 

 In the Southwest the absence of snow means absence of 

 forage and starvation for thousands of animals. 



Even with the plains now open and an abundant forage 

 crop assured over the greater part of the grazing area, the 

 losses are by no means over, because the season is so late. 

 The plains forage is counted upon to keep the animals in 

 feed until the summer ranges in the mountains are ready, 

 but the fact that these feeding grounds will be six weeks 

 late in bearing a crop of forage grasses means that there will 

 be another feedless period between with resultant losses. 



The United States Forest Service, which controls most 

 of the summer feeding grounds in the mountains, as they 

 are located in National Forests, is doing everything in its 

 power to relieve the situation. As soon as the gravity of 



the situation was appreciated, telegrams were sent from the 

 headquarters at Washington, D. C, to all District Foresters 

 and Supervisors ordering them to let all the stock that 

 could be fed on to the summer ranges and to do it as soon 

 as the forage was in condition. This may result in some 

 overcrowding of the range and a shortage later, but the 

 need is so great that the chance must be taken. 



An idea of the total shortage in the meat supply which 

 will result from the losses can be gained from the following 

 figures: There are normally a few less than fifty million 

 cattle on the western ranges. Of these ten or twelve mil- 

 lion are beef cattle. In the average year 500,000 calves are 

 grazed on the National Forests, but figures show that this 

 number will be reduced probably twenty per cent. A re- 

 duction this year of one-fifth of the total beef supply will be 

 the result, and next year and the following it will be even 

 more marked, because the steers pulled through the bad 

 year while the cows died off, and the future as well as 

 the present calf crop will be thereby cut down. The 

 sheep losses are much greater than those among the cattle; 

 but, being fast breeders, they will more quickly reach 

 normal numbers again. About six million lambs are 

 grazed in the National Forests on an average, but this 

 year it is estimated that the total will be nearer four mil- 

 lion. Only thirty-five or forty per cent of the ewes will 

 have lambs, about half as many as usual, and the result will 

 be a reduction of about one-third in the mutton supply. 



Averaging the losses, it is evident that the beef and 

 mutton output will be reduced approximately twenty-five 

 per cent this year, with several lean years ahead, especially 

 in the beef supply. Two years ago Australia lost twenty 

 million sheep, and conditions are as bad or worse in the 

 other grazing regions of the world, so the United States 

 cannot depend on a foreign meat supply and must work 

 out its own salvation. The agitation for economy and con- 

 servation in handling food needs no stronger argument 

 than this to prove its case. 



A LARGE number of schools in New York State have 

 **- taken advantage of the offer put out by the New 

 York State College of Forestry to furnish plans free and 

 shrubbery at cost for the improvement of school grounds. 

 Among the villages which have celebrated Arbor Day by 

 putting through landscape improvement plans are Camden, 

 Canastota, Peterboro, Fulton, Clayton, Remsen and Bel- 

 mont. Plans are under way for several other villages. 



rj^HE President has issued a proclamation eliminating 

 *- 40,160 acres of mineral land from the Crook Na- 

 tional Forest in Arizona. A large part of the area is cov- 

 ered by mining locations and there is practically no forest 

 cover. The land has no value for watershed protection. 

 By the same proclamation some thirty-four thousand 

 acres of rough mountain land of no agricultural value are 

 added to the forest. 



