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Herds and Humans 



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Pastoral pursuits have always constituted one of the principal occupations of the human 



race. Early history would be deprived of some of its most interesting chapters if we were to 



eliminate from them the many references to flocks and herds and shepherds, and kine or 



cattle. 



In our own West, and especially in its arid, semiarid, and mountainous portions, grazing 



is still and probably always will be of great importance to people who live there. 



Here the shepherd and his sheep, his tepee and his faithful dog, and the contented grazing 

 of well-bred cattle portray important uses of mountain pastures and forest ranges. But 

 they also provide scenes that lend pleasure and romance to mountain travel. 



John H. Hatton, in an unpublished manuscript. 



GRASS-MADE MEAT and wool are part of a great and needed industry 

 in this country. National-forest land must help to support this industry in 

 the future, as in the past. The Forest Service began allotting national-forest 

 ranges, in place of earlier and unorganized use, some 30 years ago. So graz- 

 ing antedates recreation as a major national-forest use. It is still a major 

 phase of national-forest use in the West, where large numbers of stockmen 

 depend on national-forest pasturage for summer range. 



More than \ l / 2 million cattle and horses and 9 million sheep and goats 

 find forage for a part of each year on the national forests. Twenty-six 

 thousand families are directly or indirectly dependent on these ranges for 

 their livelihood, and on nearby lowland ranges stockmen have invested 

 about $200,000,000 in ranch properties which would be far less valuable 

 without national-forest summer range. 



Southern and eastern national forests do not occupy an important place 



151 



