GRAZING INVESTIGATIONS ON OUR NATIONAL 

 FORESTS.* 



Arthur W. Sampson. 



The magnitude of the stock industry on National Forests 

 over which the Branch of Grazing of the United States Forest 

 Service has supervision may be realized when it is recalled 

 that on 125,000,000 acres of grazing land within National 

 Forests in the year 1910, 9,000,000 head of stock were grazed. 

 Of this number, about 75 per cent were sheep, the balance 

 being made up of cattle, goats, horses, and swine, named in 

 their order of abundance. The grazing fees amounted to about 

 $970,000, exceeding the revenue from timber sales by more 

 than $29,000. Aside from the many perplexing and intricate 

 problems of grazing administration the Branch of Grazing 

 is carrying out a number of range investigations. 



The stockman of today is no longer "the monarch of all 

 he surveys." In the beginning he was not restricted to any 

 definite locality but was free to graze his stock wherever 

 natural conditions offered the greatest possibilities. It seemed 

 in the beginning that the forage crop was inexhaustible, but 

 the alluring possibilities of the stock raising industry through- 

 out the West soon resulted in overstocking, and the injudicious 

 removal of the forage crop, as the inevitable result of the lack 

 of a system of range management during the "free for all" 

 grazing period, soon made apparent the serious reduction of 

 the natural forage supply. 



One factor which greatly added to the possibilities of the 

 stock -industry and which possibly contributed more than any 

 other to the depletion of the natural range lands was the de- 

 velopment of hay production on the lands susceptible to irri- 

 gation in the vicinity of the higher mountain lands. As long 

 as the stock was entirely dependent upon the range the year 

 round, the limited amount of winter forage produced made it 

 impossible for the stockman to range so many stock as to 



*Published by permission of the Secretary of Agriculture. 



