AG 
as much commercial importance to its people as the five largest manu- 
facturing industries of Massachusetts combined are to the péople of 
that State. Crook County is for its population a large purchaser of gen- 
eral merchandise, most of which is either produced in the Willamette 
~~ aT hse 
Valley or is shipped from outside the State through Portland. The 
prosperity of Crook County, therefore, is of importance to the prosperity 
of the whole State. Similar trade relations, varying in each ease, 
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 stryek 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, nevertheiess stated that 
in their opinion the exclusion of sheep from the reserve was against the 
best commercial interests of their communities. 
ABOLITION OF THE RESERVE. 
The proposition, on the other extreme, to abolish the Cascade Reserve 
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 hasalways 
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, rather, favor the reserve, 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 promi- 
nent official who supposed, and accordingly so told them, that if the 
reserve was created sheep would undoubtedly be excluded. Under 
these circumstances they took the only course open to them, namely, 
to advocate the maintenance of the then existing conditions by oppos- 
ing the creation of the reserve. From conversations with representa- 
tive sheep owners the writer is convinced 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 OF REGULATIONS. 
After a thorough examination of the whole subject of sheep grazing 
in the Cascade reserve the writer’s 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 
inflicting much more serious evils upon the welfare of the State. But 
a system can be adopted which, honestly and intelligently carried out, 
will stop the real evils of the present system and at the same time 
maintain the interests of all the communities concerned. 
