428 CHANGES IN RANGE CONDITIONS 



Third, the ownership and withdrawal of so much land has made 

 trailing from one range to another both difficult and expensive. 

 The trails are narrow and must be travelled over by many bands 

 of sheep. Feed becomes scarce, the sheep go backward in condition, 

 and lambs are often permanently stunted by the hardships of the 

 trail. In many sections the land between summer and winter range 

 has become occupied to such exteirt that the sheep have to be trans- 

 ferred by rail. 



Fourth, the changes which have come about in control of lands 

 have forced sheepmen to invest heavily in lands. In recent years 

 homesteaders all over the West have sold lands worth not to exceed 

 $3 per acre at from $5 to $15 per acre. There was a time when it 

 was not necessary for the sheepman to own a foot of land, but that 

 day has passed. Pie who owns land has advantage in controlling 

 lands for which rentals are paid. Besides, sheepmen should own 

 land on which cultivated crops are grown for the purpose of sup- 

 plementing range and those who bought land a number of years 

 ago are now best prepared to continue in the sheep business. Not 

 only that, but they purchased when prices were extremely low and 

 the advance of land values have been such that their investments 

 were very profitable. 



Changes in Labor. During the last fifteen or twenty years 

 there have been significant changes in labor on sheep ranches with 

 respect to the amount required, its efficiency, and its cost in wages 

 and provisions. 



Throughout the West more labor per thousand sheep is re- 

 quired now than a number of years ago. Statements have already 

 been made which show that this is true. As compared with the 

 past, sheepmen now operate under what may be termed crowded 

 conditions. There are the homesteaders on the plains, allotments in 

 the mountains, ranch headquarters for producing and storing feed, 

 all of which did not exist in the past and which add to the amount 

 of labor needed. It is harder now to keep different bands from mix- 

 ing and to prevent trespassing; hence, bands have to be either cut 

 down in size or tended by more men. Then, too, lands are now 

 used as range which were once discarded because they were of such 

 nature that too much labor was needed in handling the sheep. 



Sheepmen emphatically assert that the labor procured now is 

 not as good as that which they used to employ. There are more 

 densely populated communities in the West now which attract many 



