[7] 



engrossing summer work of the east Oregon floek-owner, and his success in 

 that is the measure of his success in his pursuit. In this he has the advant- 

 age of the range cattle owner, as he has his flocks always under control, 

 which is well nigh impossible with cattle or horses. Cattle, horses and fat 

 sheep are generally shipped to markets east of the Rockies by rail, but 

 sheep designed for sale as breeders for the ranges of Wyoming or the 

 Dakotas, or feeders for the corn lands of Nebraska, Kansas, or adjoining 

 states, are driven on foot, preferably on the highest lands on the route taken 

 —both food and water and avoidance of local interests being considered. 

 The Forestry committee, alluding to these interests, says: 



" Great flocks are wintered in the sheltered canyons of Snake river, and 

 then, spreading through eastern Oregon, have destroyed the herbage of the 

 valleys and threatened the forests on its mountain ranges. Sheep raised in 

 eastern Oregon and Washington are driven every summer across Idaho and 

 Wyoming to markets in Nebraska and Dakota, eating bare as they go and 

 carrying ruin in their path. In every western state and territory nomadic 

 sheep men are dreaded and despised. Year after year, however, they con- 

 tinue their depredations. The actual loss this industry inflicts on the coun- 

 try annually, in thousands of acres of burnt timber and in ruined pasture 

 lands, is undoubtedly large, although insignificant in comparison with its 

 effects on the future of mountain forests, the flow of streams and the agri- 

 cultural possibilities of their valleys." 



This extract contains the chief points of the committee's conclusions. 

 This business of marketing sheep from west of the Rockies is in the hands 

 of middle-men, who pay for any accommodations they receive from resi- 

 dents of the country they cross. The picture of destruction is wholly 

 imaginary, both as to the threatening of the forests and the ruin of pas- 

 tures. I here insert an extract from a letter received from Commissioner 

 Dosch, who has recently visited the Snake river canyons. He says: 



" As you know, I have just returned from a trip to Montana and inci- 

 dentally paid a visit to friends in Utah, Idaho, and Oregon, along the 

 Snake river, examining many commercial and private orchards, all under 

 irrigation. I have come to the conclusion, notwithstanding the fearful 

 heat, for it ranged from 108° to 111° in the shade to 133° in the sun in the 

 orchards, agriculture and horticulture is much more satisfactory where one 

 controls the water than to depend on the heavens for it, coming, as it does, 

 at unseasonable times, which is not the case in irrigated districts. I have 

 not seen finer kept orchards, nor more thrifty growing trees, nor laden 

 with finer, larger peaches, pears, prunes and apples, than those very or- 

 chards along Snake river, which were but a few years ago barren wastes 

 covered with sage brush and jackrabbits. The grain fields are simply im- 

 mense, and as to alfalfa for hay it is beyond belief — three to four cuttings 

 per year, averaging seven tons for the year. If our southern Oregon Mends 



