404 
THE SAGE PLAINS OF OREGON 
grazing is done upon the public lands. When the price of beef 
or other product of grazing was high, as it was, for example, ten 
years ago, it was to the immediate interest of every cattle owner 
to fatten the largest number of stock in the briefest possible 
time, regardless of the effect of so doing upon the future pro- 
ductiveness of forage. Not only is the system a bad one theo- 
retically, but its practical effects are manifest in the actual con- 
ditions of many portions of our grazing regions today, and if the 
])rices of the ])roducts of grazing continue high enough to make 
grazing a profitable industiy, the condition of affairs is hound 
to become gradually worse, and we shall ultimatel}^ in section 
after section, ruin our grazing lands. 
The correction of the evil may be brought about, it seems to 
me, 1)}' one of three methods. First, by a system of licenses 
which shall regulate the number of cattle to be grazed on a given 
area. A similar system has been })roposed for our forest lands, 
and some plan of the kind seems likeh' to be adopted. The 
principal objection to licenses in the case of grazing lands is that 
the responsibility of the government would l)e great and the 
administration of such a law would add enormously to the ma- 
chinery of the executive. 
A second and perhaps preferable method is the private owner- 
ship of land. It is evident that it is to the advantage of an 
owner to maintain his land at its greatest continued jiroductive- 
ness, and he would not, therefore, seriousl}^ over-graze it. As a 
matter of fact, the great cattle ranges, which are either owned by 
individuals or corporations, or are essentially theirs through the 
control of the available water supply, are in far better condition 
today than the public lands, which are common grazing grounds, 
and man}’- of the areas thus controlled are in just as good condi- 
tion as they ever were. 
A third method of securing responsible management of graz- 
ing lands is a long-term lease from the government. The prin- 
cipal objection of cattlemen to private ownership of land is the 
necessity of i)aying taxes. This difficulty would be obviated by 
a lease of the land from the government, and, even though the 
amount paid were small, the advantage of an interested manage- 
ment would prove of the highest benefit to the general public, 
while the government would still retain its title to the land and 
after the expiration of the lease could make new terms, based on 
longer experience and changed conditions. 
