224 WESTERN GRAZING GROUNDS AND FOREST RANGES 



Stock Losses Less. It has been proved beyond any 

 question that on the National Forests with a constant 

 supervision on the part of the rangers and other forest 

 officers, the loss from straying and stealing of stock is 

 much less than on the open ranges. The losses from 

 predatory animals have also been greatly reduced on 

 the National Forests where hunters are especially em- 

 ployed to kill them, and the various forest officers are 

 also encouraged to capture and destroy such animals 

 whenever opportunity offers. 



Policy of Government Growing in Favor. When the 

 National Forests were first formed, and the Government 

 began to make a charge for grazing stock on them, the 

 stockmen who had hitherto used the ranges without 

 restriction of any kind found great fault with the sys- 

 tem. For several years there was in many parts of the 

 West a strong opposition to the plan. Today, how- 

 ever, there is no doubt that if it were left to a vote of 

 the stockmen whether to abolish the National Forests 

 and allow grazing under the old conditions or continue 

 under the present plan, 90 per cent would be in favor of 

 its continuance. 



During 1912 nearly 7,500,000 sheep and goats and 

 1,500,000 cattle and horses grazed under permit on the 

 various National Forests. The number of permits ex- 

 ceeded 26,500, of which 21,188 were for cattle and 

 horses and 5,313 for sheep and goats. 



In estimating the number of sheep actually grazed the 

 total is undoubtedly almost twice that shown by the 

 permit numbers. This is because of the policy of the 

 Forest Service in not making charge for animals under 

 six months of age. The sheepmen almost universally 

 avail themselves of this advantage by taking into the 



