288 PROTECTION AGAINST DOMESTIC ANIMALS; GRAZING 



injury to the production of tree crops is exceedingly difficult 

 to estimate, since the major portion of the loss accrues to young 

 reproduction and to soil conditions. So far as is known no 

 general estimates of the damage have been madeJ 



Grazing is beneficial to the community as a whole producing 

 enormous annual receipts expressed either as rents for grazing 

 privileges or values of domestic animals supported. 



Damage to the forest often is considered incidental and a 

 necessary consequence of the grazing industry. On the other 

 hand, there are many areas where the forest must be consid- 

 ered first and only such an amount of grazing allowed as 

 will not injure the forests or alter their influence. The 

 National Forests fall within this class of land and require 

 such management of the grazing as shall not interfere with 

 the primary purposes of timber production and watershed 

 protection.^ 



Too little consideration has been given the question of 

 relative benefits, likely to follow from the use of given areas 

 of land for production of trees or for grazing purposes, and 

 the extent to which the two can be combined profitably upon 

 the same areas. Until this information is secured, it may be 

 difficult to determine whether certain of the harmful effects 

 of grazing upon the forest should be tolerated or prevented. 



Woodward, who is working on the problem of the relative 

 profits from grazing and tree crops, intimates, in a letter to the 

 author, that for southern New Hampshire the net annual 

 returns per acre from grazing are less than can be secured in 

 growing white pine on the same land. 



Secrest^ states, with reference to conditions in Ohio, that 

 the value of the average woodland pasture is not over fifty 

 cents per acre per year. Higher returns than this should be 

 secured through tree crops. 



Methods of Control and Prevention. — Methods of con- 



