SURVEYS OP .FOREST RESERVES. 125 



and often a luxuriant growth takes place before it is checked by the 

 cold of winter. When the snowstorms begin, commonly toward the 

 middle of December, the sheep are kept within corrals at the ranch 

 and fed upon hay. The snow lies upon the ground for a period varying 

 from six to forty days, according to season and elevation.. When the 

 snow has disappeared the same system of ranging is pursued as in the 

 autumn until about the middle of March, when the lambing season 

 begins. The period of gestation is twenty-one weeks. The lambing 

 continues for about a month. After all the lambs are yeaned and the 

 males castrated, the shearing of the adults begins and keeps up until 

 it is time to start for the mountains. The shearing is done on the ranch 

 and the wool afterwards hauled to the shipping point. The practice, 

 common in some regions, of driving the sheep to the shipping point 

 and shearing them there is not generally followed in the Oregon plains. 



Between May 15 and the end of the first week in June, when the 

 grass of the plains begins to dry up, the bands, again readjusted (ewes 

 and lambs together) and commonly varying in number from 1,800 to 

 2,700, the average being about 2,200, are driven toward the mountains. 

 The average rate of travel is about 8 miles per day, varying with the 

 heat, the feed, and the watering places. The iisual practice is to start 

 a band early, between daylight and sunrise, and let them travel slowly, 

 grazing as they go, until about 9 o'clock. They then lie down, during 

 the warmer part of the day, until 3 or 4 o'clock in the. afternoon, when 

 they start again and go on till sundown or a little later. They are 

 watered once a day, if possible. Seldom earlier than the 10th of June 

 and seldom later than the 1st of July they reach their summer range 

 in the timber. 



The bucks are kept in summer in inclosed pastures, or sometimes, 

 when an owner has a large enough number to warrant it, or when sev- 

 eral owners put their bucks together, they are run in bands, but they 

 are always kept separate from the ewes and lambs. 



DUTtES OF HERDEES AND PACKERS. 



It is the duty of the packer, who is often also the owner, to find new 

 grazing places as fast as the feed is eaten off by the sheep, to move 

 camp to these spots, and to keep the herder or herders (one man some- 

 times packing for two bauds) and himself supplied with provisions. 

 A saddle horse and two pack horses are commonly used by the packer. 



The herder's duty is to keep his band on good feed, keep the sheep in 

 one body, bring back those that have strayed away, look out for the 

 appearance of disease and apply the necessary remedies, and join the 

 packer in the cooking and other camp work. If the sheep are to graze 

 2 or 3 miles from camp (about the maximum distance) and in the forest, 

 they are often driven away as early as sunrise, but if the grazing is 

 nearer camii, and especially if it is on open meadow land, the sheep 

 seldom start ont before the dew is off the grass. They graze a few 

 hours, lie down during the middle of the day, graze again, and finally 

 return to their bedding ground, situated usually near the camp. 



The piactice of herders in handling their sheep varies widely. Some 

 are constantly with their bauds, watching them closely throughout the 

 day, carefully guiding them from one choice piece of feed to another, 

 keeping them rounded up with a dog, and sleeping among them at night. 

 Others leave a band to pick out their own feeding area, to take care of 

 themselves largely, and even to select their own bedding ground, attend- 

 ing only in a general way to their location and seeing that the band 



