SURVEYS OF FOREST RESERVES. 149 



number of sheep to be pastured in the Cascades does not continue to 

 increase. If the nuQ)ber does increase and all the present available 

 areas become overgrazed, fires are almost sure to occur in areas now 

 well timbered — fires which are not countenanced by the best element of 

 stockmen, but which will be caused by irresponsible packers and 

 herders. 



A general belief prevails that the increasing value of wool and 

 mutton will cause an important and conspicuous increase in the number 

 of sheep, and that the summer grazing land will in a few years become 

 overgrazed. This conclusion at first sight appears plausible, but it must 

 be remembered that Oregon is a country on which other parts of the 

 United States draw very largely for their lambs; and as the demand 

 for stock sheep is on the increase, and will probably continue to increase 

 for some years, it is unquestionable that a large part of the expected 

 increase in eastern Oregon will quickly leave the State. So fully and 

 reasonably were the probable results of these fluctuations of the market 

 and their effect upon stock sheep explained to me by a prominent owner 

 in eastern Oregon, Mr. J. N. Williamson of Prineville, that I am disposed 

 to accept his judgment that within the next few years the number of 

 sheep in eastern Oregon will not materially increase, but that succeed- 

 ing this period of a large outside demand for stock sheep an overpro- 

 duction in Oregon will take place, so that at the end of, say, four or 

 five years a marked increase will probably have shown itself. 



In this connection I may say that an increase of the available range, 

 should the demand for range increase, seems not impracticable. Under 

 the peculiar conditions that exist in the lodge-pole pine forests on the 

 pumice soils of the southern portion of the- sheep range (described on 

 page — ), I see no reason why under a system of intelligent and skilled 

 forage management experiments can not be made. It seems to me 

 probable that the forage output of Crane Prairie, for example, might 

 be doubled, but the experiment must be conducted with great care and 

 the effects carefully watched by measuring the run off of the main fork 

 of the Des Chutes. 



REMEDIAL MEASURES. 



Two extreme remedies have been proposed for the present unstable 

 and unsatisfactory system : On the one side the total exclusion of sheep, 

 and on the other the abolition of the reserve. 



EXCLXJSION OF SHEEP FROM THE RESERVE. 



Assuming that the Interior Department adopts and puts into execu- 

 tion the policy of exclusion, the evils incident to overgrazing would of 

 course be prevented. But what would be the effect on the forest fires? 

 Would they cease? If they would, and if exclusion were the only 

 remedy that would bring this about, no question could fairly be raised 

 against it. But from the fact that destructive fires occurred in the 

 Cascades long before they were used as a sheep range, that destructive 

 fires have occurred in parts of the reserve in which sheep have never 

 grazed, and that destructive fires are to-day occurring from a variety of 

 causes that have no connection with sheep grazing, it can not be main- 

 tained that exclusion of sheep would wholly stop the forest fires. 



