SURVEYS OF FOREST RESERVES. 



127 



STATISTICS OF SHEEP GRAZED WITHIN THE RESERVE. 



One of the first pieces of information it was desired to secure was a 

 reliable estimate of the number of sheep ranged within the reserve. 

 The estimates secured from different sources varied so greatly, how- 

 ever, that all were necessarily treated as unsatisfactory, and it was 

 resolved to take an actual census on the ground. This was done by 

 repeated inquiry of herders, packers, owners, and residents having a 

 definite knowledge of the various bands. The data thus secured include 

 the name of each owner or lessee, the number of his bauds, the number 

 of sheep in each band, the place on which they were grazing when the 

 record was made, and the county in which the sheep were owned. The 

 publication of all the details is unnecessary and undesirable, but a sum- 

 mary of the data gives the following statistics : 



The total number of sheep recorded as ranging onthe Cascade Eeserve 

 is 188,360, contained in 86 bands — an average of 2,190 sheep per band. 

 Classified by size, the bands are as follows: 



a Tliis means not less than 950 nor more than 1,049. The same relation holds for the rest of the 

 table. 



b The exceptionally large number of bands containing 2,000 and 2,500 is due to the fact that only 

 estimatp.s instead of an actual count of the number of sheep in some of the bands could be made by 

 those fioni "whom the information was secured, and that in making these estimates a person is much , 

 more likely to say 2,000 than 1,900 or 2,100, or 2,500 rather than 2,400 or 2,600. 



Bands of less than 1,600 are usually owned by young men who are mak- 

 ing a start in the business ; bands of more than -!,700 by owners who are 

 ranging their sheep in unusually open country or who are injudiciously 

 trying to save the hire of an additional herder. Of the various expenses 

 entailed in running a band of sheep the wages of the herder and packer, 

 the cost of their provisions, and the cost of their outfit are fixed charges, 

 whatever the number of sheep in the baud. With a small band the 

 net profits per head are therefore less. With a larger band the net 

 profits per head increase until the band reaches such a size, varying 

 with the herder and the nature of the region, that the number of strayed 

 and lost sheep increases greatly and the others impede each other to 

 such an extent in grazing that they produce neither a large amount nor 

 a good quality of wool. The net profit per head then decreases, and an 

 owner usually prefers to divide the band, purchasing enough additional 

 sheep to make two bands of suitable size. 



Classified by counties in which the sheep are owned, the statistics 

 are as follows : 



