232 WESTERN GRAZING GROUNDS AND FOREST RANGES 



of the range country -west of the Missouri was capable 

 in its best days of supporting more than one cow to 

 every twenty-five acres and keep it up year after year. 

 Today, taking the whole western range country, in- 

 cluding the areas in Arizona and New Mexico, which 

 are principally desert, it is doubtful whether on an aver- 

 age it will support more than one cow to every seventy- 

 five acres. 



The splendid forage grasses that covered all this 

 western range were eaten off and the roots uncovered by 

 the winds which blew all the soil from them. The earth 

 too was trampled and packed hard as a floor by the 

 feet of the stock wandering back and forth across it. 

 Robbed of the required amount of moisture through the 

 drainage operations of these various trails and roads 

 and the hard impervious surface of the ground, the 

 native grasses have a hard struggle to make headway 

 towards revegetating the overgrazed areas. 



Besides this the stockmen were slow to realize that 

 the range could no longer support the same number of 

 stock, and until Providence stepped in and by a series 

 of hard winters swept the surplus stock from the 

 ranges, little was done to 'reduce the number. Bitter as 

 has been the lesson the stockmen still will not see the 

 necessity for more conservative handling of the ranges, 

 or, seeing it, will not accept the only possible way in 

 which it can be brought about, which is, government 

 control. 



Time after time has the matter been brought to their 

 attention through conventions and meetings, but so far 

 there is a fatal lack of harmony among these men who 

 are the most vitally interested. The opposition comes 

 mainly from the sheepmen, who, while fully realizing 



