Plants Used by Sheep on Mountain Range. 1 7 



been drawn based only on local data or on the mere opinions and 

 prejudices of the men involved. Such conclusions are not only unscien- 

 tific but they have often been the cause of mistaken forest policy and 

 much ill-feeling among the parties affected. 



The facts herein presented and the conclusions drawn relate only 

 to the conditions as described herein when well-managed bands of sheep 

 were being grazed on leased land which had an abundance of forage 

 for the number of sheep which it was sustaining. 



FOREST REPRODUCTION. 



As far as the trees which make up the wood products of this 

 forest are concerned, the sheep grazing observed had absolutely no dele- 

 terious effect upon reproduction. The sheep never ate the young conif- 

 erous trees or any of their foliage. There are no hardwoods produced 

 in this region. The herding system described above so scattered the 

 sheep that there was no serious trampling or breaking of seedlings and 

 young trees. The trails formed by the sheep were not deeply cut ex- 

 cept in the neighborhood of the bedding grounds. 



The sheep feeding described had no deleterious effect on the 

 shrubby plants and herbs of the region. The brush was as abundant 

 when the grazing grounds were re-examined in the summer of 1912 as 

 it was before the sheep reached it in 1911. Compare figures 5 and 6 

 taken on the same hillside in 1911 and 1912. Even the bedding 

 grounds of the sheep were not all ruined by the excessive tramping and 

 over-grazing, as is usually contended by the opponents of sheep graz- 

 ing. Figures 7, 8, and 9 were taken on the same bedding ground; 

 figures 7 and 8 in 1911, just after the sheep had passed over it, and 

 figure 9 in 1912, after it had a winter and spring to recover. The 

 sheep were bedded here for five nights in 1911. 



Figure 1 3 represents a piece of ground which according to the 

 men in charge of the sheep they had used for four nights as a bedding 

 ground in 1 9 1 0. It was taken before the sheep reached it in 1911. 

 The spontaneous growth of timothy which has occurred is greater than 

 is often found on planted meadows. Across the road from it is a 

 patch of coral berry which was grazed clean in 1910. It is repre- 

 sented after its recovery in 1911 in figure 14. 



The only bedding ground observed which had really suffered and 

 had not recovered from its previous year's grazing is illustrated in fig- 

 ures 11 and 12. Figure 11 represents it after the sheep had been 

 bedded on it two nights in 1911. They remained there altogether 

 eight nights. The herder had planned to bed them up on the ridge 

 after the third night but the habits of the sheep were too strong and 

 they returned to this bedding ground every night. The plants which 

 originally occupied this ground were of the type usually found on the 

 edges of meadows and were mostly tall weedy herbs, and of little 

 forage value. 



