CHAPTER XL 



STOCK ON RANGES IN NATIONAL FORESTS. 



With approximately 160,000,000 acres of land inside 

 the boundaries of the various National Forests at the 

 present time, the control of grazing matters on the pub- 

 lic lands in the United States is practically in the hands 

 of the Forest Service. The importance of this range is 

 increased when we remember that probably three- 

 fourths of it comprises the summer ranges, which are 

 of vital necessity to stockmen, especially sheepraisers. 

 The summer range is today the key to the whole graz- 

 ing situation in the West. 



Timber the First Consideration. Inasmuch as the 

 prime consideration in establishing the National Forests 

 was the preservation and perpetuation of the timber 

 supply, and the protection of important watersheds, it 

 naturally follows that all pther demands for the use of 

 those areas may be considered only after the main one 

 of forest preservation. The control of grazing on the 

 National Forests is of course greatly complicated by the 

 questions involved in protecting the timber and also 

 the watersheds of the various mountain ranges over 

 which the National Forests extend; and it becomes 

 necessary for the Government in handling the stock on 

 the National Forests to consider it as rather a secondary 

 matter, in which the questions of reproduction and pro- 

 tection of the growing timber must necessarily come 



208 



