7- 



lasted. The demand for cattle was strong; each man bought 

 all he could in order that he might sell twice as many a little 

 later. The range was overstocked, and the grass was rapidly 

 disappearing. The speculative boom continued until there came 

 the inevitable reaction with its enormous losses. The depleted 

 ranges of the Southwest will carry now only two-thirds as many 

 cattle as they could have been made to carry. To a greater or 

 a less degree this is true of the Government lands everywhere. 

 The open ranges, like any range or any pasture, can provide for- 

 age for only a limited number of stock. Every stockman is try- 

 ing to get all the grass he can while it lasts. There are too many 

 cattle on the cattle ranges, too many sheep on the sheep ranges. 

 The cattlemen vary this proposition by saying that there are apt 

 to be too many sheep on the cattle ranges, and the sheepmen 

 have the opposite complaint to make. 



On sheep ranges rented from the railroad in the Eastern Sierra 

 Nevada, depletion caused by overstocking is not so widespread. 

 As the sheep increase, too many may be put on one section, but 

 in the main the sheepman knows about how many sheep his 

 range will carry without injury, and does not exceed this number 

 greatly. The desire to get rich quickly may lead him to greatly 

 overstock his rented range, and then sell out a short-sighted 

 policy whose tendency is to force him out of the business. 



Even on lands actually owned by the stockman destructive 

 overstocking is not uncommon. This arises partly from thought- 

 less ignorance, and in part from lack of prudent foresight. 



On any range land the number of animals which can safely 

 graze there without permanently injuring the forage is a limited 

 number, much smaller in dry seasons than in those whose rainfall 

 is more abundant. On a pasture too many animals will eat the 

 grass too closely, and soon trample it out. Bitter and thorny 

 weeds will produce seed abundantly, for they will be left un- 

 touched. The disappearance of the grass which occupied the 

 ground and choked out the weeds, changes the pasture into a weed 

 patch. On an overstocked range for sheep or for cattle the forage 

 is permanently injured in much the same way. The good plants 

 are killed out; the bad ones survive because they have more room 

 in which to grow. There is always a sort of warfare, a struggle 



