1 Plants Used by Sheep on Mountain Range. 



THE HERDING SYSTEM. 



In the two very different regions of the summer range, the yellow 

 pine and the white pine, the two bands of sheep mentioned above were 

 grazed and studied in the month of August, 1911. 



The typical method of herding them was as follows: The herder 

 established his camp on the edge of a meadow, near a piece of level 

 bottom land, or on the edge of a clearing on a hill. Here was the 

 bedding ground of the sheep; that is, the place where they were gathered 

 for the night. To this same ground the sheep returned every night till 

 they had grazed over all the ground available from this point. They 

 were then moved on to the next bedding ground. This system is dia- 

 grammatically represented in figure 1 7, which represents the grazing plan 

 for one week. In this case the sheep were moved from bedding ground 

 A to bedding ground B on the first day. Bedding ground B is located 

 on the edge of a small timothy meadow at a point where two or three 

 small ravines run back into the hills. Early on the second morning the 

 sheep begin to stir and are guided out into the timber in the region 

 marked 2. In the main they are started out on the side of the range 

 opposite the ground they covered the day before. They are guided and 

 held from too great scattering by careful quiet circling movements of the 

 herder, who, after an early breakfast which he cooks and eats at his 

 tent, puts in the most of the forenoon in handling the sheep. It is his 

 effort to get the sheep out about a mile from the camp in the forenoon 

 and to spread them out in small groups so that all will have an opportu- 

 nity to feed. Although the herder usually has a couple of dogs with 

 him he uses these but little in the woods except in an emergency. Do<?s 

 are used more when the sheep are traveling along a public road. The 

 McGregor outfits use dogs which are a cross between the collie and the 

 Australian wolfhound. Sheep are easily frightened and, especially in 

 the forenoon, will, if disturbed, hasten back to last night's bedding 

 ground. By .ten-thirty or eleven o'clock when the heat of the day has 

 arrived, the sheep find their way into the deep shade and lie down quietly 

 for a noon siesta. 



When the sheep settle down at noon, the herder goes to camp and 

 cooks his dinner. About two or two-thirty o'clock or even later on hot 

 days, the sheep rouse themselves and begin to graze back toward the 

 bedding ground. The herder guides them back on the side of the graz- 

 ing ground next to yesterday's path, hoping thus to pick up any stragglers 

 which may have been lost the day before and are now hunting the 

 other sheep. 



By five-thirty or six o'clock the sheep have reached camp. The 

 herder scatters small piles of crushed rock salt over the bedding ground 

 and calls his sheep. They rush out of the woods, lick up the salt and 

 gather closely together for the night. For an hour or two a period of 

 adjustment occurs. During the day, lambs and their mothers have be- 



