22 BULLETIN "80, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



portions of the range without abusing the portions more easily 

 reached. This difficulty can be overcome or minimized by improved 

 methods of salting, herding, fencing, and development of water, as 

 discussed in detail under the heading, " Management of Cattle on the 

 Range." If these means are not successful, the number of cattle 

 should be reduced. To prevent waste of feed which the cattle will 

 not use, common use may be necessary. 



More uniform use of sheep allotments is possible only through 

 conscientious effort on the part of local forest officers, sheep owners, 

 and herders to bring this about on all parts of each allotment. With- 

 out this the only way to remedy overgrazing is to reduce the number 

 of sheep. 



Overstocking undoubtedly was one of the main causes of the 

 rapid deterioration of many ranges before they were placed under 

 regulated grazing. It is believed, however, that most of the 

 range units within the National Forests will support the stock 

 now allotted to them if the grazing periods, distribution of stock, 

 and the methods of handling the stock are reasonably well adjusted. 

 If careful consideration of a recognized case of overgrazing shows 

 that these factors are properly adjusted and overgrazing is still going 

 on, then a system of deferred grazing should be applied; and, if 

 effective carrying out of the system demands it, the number of stock 

 should be reduced. Where overgrazing has resulted in denudation 

 and erosion which has reached the stage of shoestring gullying, no 

 grazing should be allowed until the damage is largely repaired and 

 the cover of vegetation restored. To temporize in such cases in 

 order not to disturb the local stock industry will hurt the local in- 

 dustry in the end, as delay increases the total protection necessary 

 to build up the range. 



Improper handling of stock on the range causes overgrazing, partly 

 through lack of proper distribution. There are, however, a few 

 features of improper handling which may result in severe local over- 

 grazing on range where the stock are reasonably well distributed 

 over the allotment as a whole. For example, though all portions of 

 a sheep allotment may be used, the practice of bedding sheep six or 

 more nights in the same place over a period of years will result in an 

 area of from one-eighth to one-fourth of a mile around the bedding 

 ground being overgrazed, sometimes disastrously. 1 The three-night 

 bedding rule will help to overcome this difficulty, but will not en- 

 tirely do away with it if three nights in the same camp, year after 

 year, accompanied by trailing out from and back to the camp in late 

 morning and early evening hours, is .the rule rather than the excep- 

 tion. If one-night bedding, with the sheep away from the bed in 



1 Sampson, Arthur W., " Plant Succession in Relation to Range Management," 17. S. 

 I>ept. of Agriculture, Bui. 791, 1919. 



