18 



an increase of cattle mean a larger beef production, for the dairy 

 cow soon makes her appearance in large numbers in the thickly- 

 populated sections. 



From the foregoing statements it will be seen that beef produc- 

 tion has a very uncertain future. The free grazing lands that re- 

 main are in an unsatisfactory condition because of indiscriminate 

 grazing and a scramble to secure what is left of the already de- 

 pleted ranges. No business is so full of annoying difficulties as 

 the handling of cattle on the remaining free ranges; and it is little 

 wonder that stockmen have grasped the opportunity to quit business 

 as quickly as prices warranted such a change. It would seem that 

 adequate laws have not yet been provided for the control of pub- 

 lic range lands. 



The setting aside of large areas of the public domain as na- 

 tional forest reserves, in the opinion of some men has been 

 beneficial to the grazing industry. Thru the issuing of grazing 

 permits and the collection of fees, the Forest Service seeks to 

 show that "regulated grazing and fewer numbers spell more ac- 

 tual profit than over-grazing and hungry cattle." 1 In the effort to 

 prevent over-stocking, fewer cattle are permitted on some sections 

 of the forest reserves than those ranges are capable of carrying. 



The section known as the range country is included principally 

 in the states of Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyom- 

 ing, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, the Dakotas, and the west- 

 ern portions of Kansas and Nebraska, as shown on the accompany- 

 ing map. In order to observe the course of development of the 

 cattle industry in different sections of the West, the following 

 statistics are given, representing the number of cattle other than 

 dairy cows in the various states of the range country. 



TABI V E 8. NUMBER OK CATTLE IN VARIOUS WESTERN STATES, 1870 TO 1910 



21882. 

 ^877. _ 



ijohn H. Hatton, Breeder's Gazette, Aug. 30, 1911, p. 329. 



