152 SURVEYS OF FOREST RESERVES. 



Crook County, according to the census of 1895, was only 3,212, and that 

 therefore the wool clip alone brings itito the county an average of about 

 $92.62 per capita each year, the import ance of the wool growing business 

 as a supporter of local prosperity is at once evident. As a specific illustra- 

 tion of the significance of these figures I cite from theMassachusetts State 

 census and statistics of manufactures for 1895 as follows: Population 

 of Massachusetts, 2,500,183; manufactures of cotton goodsj $86,689,082; 

 of boots and shoes, $76,882,713; food preparations, $43,984,375; 

 machines and machinery, $23,785,409. The total i)roduct of these 

 manufacturing industries, the largest in the State of Massachusetts, is 

 $231,341,579, an average of $92.63 per capita. In brief, the wool clip 

 alone of Crook County is of as much commercial importance to its 

 people as the five largest manufacturing industries of Massachusetts 

 combined are to the people of that State. Crook County is, for its 

 population, a large purchaser of general merchandise, most of which is 

 either produced in the Willamette Y alley or is shipped from outside 

 the State through Portland. The prosperity of Crook County, there- 

 fore, is of importance to the prosperity of the whole State, aimilar 

 trade relations, varying in each case, exist in most of the thirteen other 

 counties of eastern Oregon. Both the men who make laws and the 

 men who administer them must weigh carefully the effect of their 

 action before striking a blow at one of the leading industries of a region 

 such as would be struck in the present case by excluding sheep from 

 the reserve. Many ranchers and other men who have a dislike of 

 sheep, of the methods of some sheep owners, and of the devastating 

 effect of overgrazing, nevertheless stated that, in their opinion, the 

 exclusion of sheep from the reserve was against the best commercial 

 interests of their communities. 



ABOLITION OP THE RESERVE. 



The proposition, on the other extreme, to abolish the Cascade Eeserve 

 originated with the sheep owners, and doubtless did a great deal to 

 foster the general public opinion that the sheep owners were carrying 

 on an industry opposed to the best interests of the State. It has always 

 been a matter of surprise to me that the sheep owners, instead of taking 

 the almost inevitably untenable stand that the reserve be not estab- 

 lished, did not support the movement, but demand that the right to 

 graze be conceded to them. This is now explained. I was reliably 

 informed by leading sheep owners that they were misled by a prominent 

 official, who supposed, and accordingly told them, that if the reserve 

 was created sheep would undoubtedly be excluded. Under these tir- 

 cumstances they took the only course open'to them, namely, to main- 

 tain the then existing conditions by opposing the creation of the reserve. 

 From my conversations with representative sheep owners I am con- 

 vinced that a large majority of them, if they are given the grazing 

 privilege on equitable terms, will cordially accept the reserve as a 

 public benefit. 



A NEW SYSTEM OP REGULATIONS. 



After a thorough examination of the whole subject of sheep grazing 

 in the Cascade Reserve, my conclusions are that the evils of the present 

 system can be corrected neither on the one side by abolishing the 

 reserve, nor on the other side by the exclusion of sheep, without in 

 either case inflicting much more serious evils upon the welfare of the 



