I 



ANTI-CONSERVATION ACTIVITY 169 



of limited rainfall.® Furthermore, it was reported that fires were often 

 set by sheep herders to improve the grazing, the new shoots which 

 started after a fire furnishing excellent forage for the animals. Such 

 fires were generally started in inaccessible places, far from any road, 

 to insure the burning of a large area before they could be put out.® 



At first, the Department of the Interior regulated grazing directly, 

 but in 1902, the secretary decided that where there were wool growers' 

 associations representing a majority of the sheep owners or of the 

 interests involved in wool growing, such associations should be allowed 

 to recommend the allotment of permits, providing they would see that 

 permittees complied with all rules and regulations. Qualified wool 

 growers' associations were found in four of the states, and they were 

 given the allotment of the permits in several of the reserves, including 

 one in Arizona and one in Utah, the rules being relaxed to permit some 

 grazing in these two states. In general, the operation of the rule 

 giving wool growers this authority did not prove satisfactory.^" The 

 issue of permits was often delayed, while too many sheep were gen- 

 erally allowed on the reserves, and in 1903, thie Department of Agri- 

 culture again took charge of the allotment. ^^ 



No charge being made for the privilege of grazing, it was a diffi- 

 cult task to assign permits in such a way as to do justice to all appli- 

 cants, but the department finally adopted rules giving stock prefer- 

 ence in the following order, viz. : first, stock of residents within the 

 reserve ; second, stock of persons who owned permanent ranches within 

 the reserve, but who resided outside ; third, stock of persons living in 

 the immediate vicinity; and fourth, stock of outsiders who had some 

 equitable claim.^^ While this arrangement seems just, it was not 

 accepted with good grace by some of the sheepmen. Those who had 

 been in the habit of herding their stock upon certain lands insisted 

 upon continuing the practice after the lands had been reserved, some 

 of them going to the extent of openly defying all rules and regulations 

 of the department. ^^ 



8 Report, Land Office, 1898, 87, 88. 



^Report, Sec. of Int., 1902, 314: Forest Bui. 91, 6. 



10 Report, Sec. of Int., 1902, 332, 



11 Report, Sec. of Int., 1903, 322. 



12 Report, Sec. of Int., 1903, 332. 



13 Ibid. 



