58 NATIONAL FOREST MANUAL GRAZING. 



applicant, as a class A settler, is reasonably entitled to increase toward 

 the protective limit. After the first season the apportionment of 

 grazing privileges will be strictly in accordance with the following 

 rules of preference: 



Order of Preference. 



A.pplicants for grazing permits will be given preference in the fol- 

 lowing order: 



Class A. Small near-by owners. A class A owner is one who 

 does not own more than the protective limit number of stock estab- 

 lished for the Forest or division, who owns and resides upon an im- 

 proved ranch within or adjacent to the Forest, and who is dependent 

 upon the use of the National Forest range in connection with his 

 ranch property. Until the protective limit is defined it is within the 

 discretion of the supervisor to determine whether an applicant is a 

 large or small owner. A firm or corporation can not be considered as 

 a class A applicant, but may be allowed exemption from reduction 

 below the protective limit. 



Class B. All other regular occupants of the range. Class B includes 

 owners of improved ranch property and stock in excess of the pro- 

 tective limit, and owners of stock either above or below the protective 

 limit who do not own improved ranch property. Copartnerships, 

 companies, and corporations* may be class B owners. Upon Forests 

 which are fully stocked all permittees in this class must secure their 

 permits on the basis of prior use and occupancy or the purchase of 

 the stock and ranches of persons holding permits. 



There may be several grades of class B applicants. One who owns 

 a large amount of improved ranch property, or one who resides in the 

 vicinity of the Forest, or who has used the range during a long period 

 of years, or who feeds his stock during the winter, may be given 

 preference over one who does not own improved ranch property 

 adjacent to the Forest, or who resides at a distance from the Forest, 

 or who has only used the range a few years, or who winters his stock 

 on the range. Class B permittees are subject to sliding-scale reduc- 

 tions, although usually such reductions are not applied to permits for 

 less than the protective limit. 



Class C. Owner 's of transient stock. Class C embraces all grazing 

 applicants not falling within classes A and B. A speculator who buys 

 stock and places it upon the range at inteivals or the nomadic stock- 

 man with no fixed range who trails his stock to widely separated 

 ranges would be class C owners. Class C applicants will be entirely 

 excluded from the Forest before any reduction is made upon class B 

 applicants. 

 New Settlers Not Class A. 



New settlers upon unimproved Government or patented lands will 

 not be regarded as class A applicants until they nave demonstrated 

 the good faith of their settlement by three years of residence, improve- 

 ment and cultivation, and by compliance with the United States 

 land laws, or satisfaction of contract agreements. They may, how- 

 ever, be granted the same preference in the use of the range that is 

 granted to bona fide class A applicants, provided that the grazing 

 privileges granted will be temporary in character during the three- 

 year period, and will not be in excess of the settler's actual needs or 

 so large that they will appear to be the principal object in filing upon 

 or purchasing the land. (See " Permits to new owners.'') 



