RANGE MANAGEMENT ON THE NATIONAL FORESTS. 49 



owning and those herding the sheep. This is desirable for the sheep 

 owners and for the range. It does away with the old practice of 

 racing for a desirable range area, trampling down forage, and doing 

 permanent injury to the range en route; and, if trespass from one 

 up it to another is prevented, it makes possible the use of the poorer 

 areas of range when they can be used best, without danger of other 

 bands coining in the meantime and grazing off choice areas. The 

 advantages of range sheep units to accommodate one band of sheep, 

 therefore, are so marked that an effort should be made to assign each 

 band to a definite range unit whether two or more bands are owned 

 by one permittee or not, for competition between herders under one 

 employer may sometimes result in unnecessary abuse of the range. 



CONTROL BY UNITS. 



To secure the best results trespass between units must be avoided, 

 for the individual using a range unit may hesitate to graze properly 

 the range allotted to his band if by doing so he defers grazing upon 

 a choice piece of range which will be a temptation to an adjoining 

 band. Further, trespass upon an allotment might result m over- 

 grazing of the allotment before the close of the season. 



Innocent trespass may occur unless the boundaries of units are 

 readily recognized on the ground. For this reason the unit bounda- 

 ries should be along prominent ridges, so far as is practicable. Streams 

 sometimes are made the dividing line, but where it is possible a band 

 should be allowed the range on both sides of a stream which sheep 

 will cross readily. Otherwise sheep of two bands may mix or there 

 may be too many sheep watering at one stream for the welfare of the 

 range. 



Unfortunately, the range within the boundary lines which form a 

 natural range unit frequently furnishes too much or too little forage 

 for the sheep in one band. On rugged mountain range it is usually 

 possible to adjust the boundary lines so as to exclude or include range 

 for probably 200 or more sheep and still have boundary lines which 

 should make innocent trespass unlikely. Where the estimated graz- 

 ing capacity of the unit is greater or less than the number of sheep 

 in the band by, say, from 50 to 200 head, the difference is so small 

 that it is not always possible to enlarge or reduce the allotment to 

 accommodate the size of the band and still have satisfactory boundary 

 lines. Where this is the case the size of the band should be adjusted 

 eventually to fit the range. 



As far as practicable, the size of the unit or allotment should be 



adapted to the number of sheep in the band ; but this principle should 



not be followed if waste of forage, overgrazing, or innocent trespass, 



due to poor boundary lines, will result. From 1,000 to 1,200 ewes 



111479°— Bull. 790—19 4 



