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CHAPTER X. 



DAMAGE TO FOREST LANDS FROM SHEEP. 



To return to our sheep, we note that the excess of damage to the 

 forests due to these animals over all others that enter our forests in 

 serious number is in the following points: 



1st. Close group feeding and general close order habit of resting, 

 traveling and eating. 



2nd. Sharp, hard feet that cut and pack. By this means both 

 young trees and grasses are destroyed; the land does not take the 

 water and permanent damage is done by off wash of immediate sur- 

 face, lack of rain penetration with consequent dryness of slope and 

 of course increased detritus and flood damage by streams draining dis- 

 tricts affected. 



3rd. The close grazing of the individual sheep. Sheep eat seeds, 

 bite out grass roots, feed on brush and either tread down, bite off or 

 eat young forest trees when other food growth is scarce. Sheep may 

 follow horses or cattle and find something to live on. To follow sheep 

 is to find nothing. No grazing animal can live with them. Neither 

 domestic nor wild animals can find a living after sheep. Sheep pasture 

 in the Sierra Nevada exterminates game and forces the prospector 

 traveler or forest officer to carry feed even for his burro. No one 

 knows what desolation can Invade a country until he sees j.. after the 

 ravages of sheep. 



4th. Fire setting by the herder. Parties reporting on this ques- 

 tion say that the sheep-herder in the public forest makes from two to 

 four fires a day for personal reasons. The herder rarely puts out such 

 fires. It is also a common practice with sheep men when leaving the 

 mountains to set fire to improve the feed for the next year. Whenever 

 Fheep occupy the public forests in our dry summers there is always 

 a haze or pall of smoke over the entire forest country which fre- 

 quently extends to cover agricultural sections. When sheep are kept 



