50 BULLETIN 790, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



with their lambs, as a general rule, should be the most run in one 

 band. Only in exceptional cases should the band exceed 1,500 ewes 

 with their lambs, or from 2,000 to 2,500 dry sheep. Larger hands are 

 difficult to handle without injury to a forest range. 



HANDLING THE SHEEP. 



An exhaustive discussion of handling sheep on the range would 

 itself fill a volume. The aim here is simply to point out the more 

 important features of proper handling without attempting to ex- 

 plain fully the ways in which the general procedure recommended 

 should be adjusted to the local conditions of range and personnel. 



As early as 1909 1 investigations showed that mountain summer 

 range grazed by sheep under fence supported from 25 to 50 per cent 

 more sheep than were being: grazed on the same acreage of similar 

 range on which the sheep were herded by the methods generally 

 practiced at that time, and that the pastured sheep made better gains 

 in weight than the herded sheep. It was found also that there may 

 be a variation of at least 25 per cent in the grazing capacity of a 

 given range when used by the same sheep under different herders. 

 From four years' study of the actions of the pastured sheep and the 

 methods of herding on unfenced range it was concluded that the 

 marked differences in grazing capacity and in growth of the sheep 

 under the two systems were due largely to a few differences in the 

 way the sheep were handled — differences which could be largely 

 eliminated by improved methods of herding. 



The desired changes have been tried out in many experiments, and 

 perhaps 50 per cent or more of the sheep grazed on ranges within the 

 National Forests are now herded under improved methods. The prob- 

 lem now is to secure the adoption of better methods by the other 50 

 per cent. 



One of the first steps in bringing this about is to follow strictly 

 the regulation 2 below : 



Sheep and goats inust riot be bedded more than three nights in succession in 

 the same place, except when bedding bauds of ewes during the lambing seasoe ; 

 and must not be bedded within 300 yards of any running stream or living 

 sjxrjug, except in rare cases where this restriction is clearly impracticable. 



The three-night limit is for rare cases where one-night bedding 

 in a place is clearly impracticable. As a general rule sheep should 

 be bedded one night in a i>htce. The damage to range so character- 

 istic around old bedding grounds will then be eliminated, and the 



1 James T. .Tardine. Tiie Pasturage System for Handling Range Sheep. U. S. Torest 

 Service, Circular 17-\ 11U0. 



- U. S. Forest Service. The National Forest Manual, Grazing Regulation 2G. 



4 



