SHEEP GRAZING IN THE FOREST RE- 

 SERVES FROM A LAYMAN'S 

 STANDPOINT 



BY 

 L H. PAMMEL 



Professor of Botany, Iowa College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts 



I HAVE been somewhat interested in forest matters 

 for a good many years, not only from the stand- 

 point of the subject of this article, but also from the 

 standpoint of a botanist. I have followed somewhat 

 closely the range problems for fifteen years, and my 

 work has brought me in contact with it from Texas to 

 Montana. I have been deeply interested in this prob- 

 lem, for the Iowa farmer needs to recuperate his stock 

 for feeding purposes from the great arid regions of 

 the West. No stock equals the western range animals 

 for feeding purposes. It is, therefore, to the interests 

 of the Mississippi Valley that good conditions shall be 

 maintained on the Western ranges. I shall not stop 

 to review the various interests concerned in connection 

 with the forest reserves of the West. 



Four interests must be considered (i) grazing, (2) 

 timber supplies, (3) irrigation, (4) mining. Each 

 must be brought together in one harmonious whole. 

 The breaking of any one of the links in the chain cannot 

 but affect the others. During the early development 

 of the West one interest only was the dominating one, 

 that of mining. It was soon found that some lines 

 of agricultural pursuits were needed to give stability 

 to the country. Then came a conflict between the 

 different lines of agriculture the irrigator, the sheep 



