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weather is gone,in order to get thei off to the mountains before his 
neighbor. Then he must make long drives so as te keep ahead, and if his 
range lies on the west slope of the Caseades he will drive across the sum- 
mit while it is yet covered with snow, the sheep passing sometimes two 
and even three days on the snow drifts without a nibble of grass. Then 
he has reached his range first, and is reasonably secure for the season. 
But the ground is still soft, the spring rains may still be falling, and 
the sprouting grass has not yet reached the development necessary to 
make good feed. He may be crowded off during the summer, though 
usually it does not pay a later arrival to push in on a range already 
occupied. Whatever happens, it is usually to the owner’s interest to 
get all the grass possible without reference to the next year’s crop, for 
he is never certain that he will be able to occupy the same rangé again. 
Where the competition is close the difficulty of insufficient forage is 
increased by the haste of a herder in forcing his sheep too rapidly over 
a grazing plot, the result being that they trample more feed than they 
eat. So year after year each band skins the range. 
Under the proposed permit system, however, the owner, knowing 
that his range is assured, will shear his sheep at the time best suited 
by the local climatic conditions for that purpose, and will start for the 
mountains at a reasonable time. This is a matter of especial impor- 
tance to those owners who live on the higher elevations of the plain, 
3,000 feet or more above the sea, and who, in order to be in the race 
with those living at an elevation of 1,000 feet or less, must ordinarily 
under existing conditions leave their home range two weeks too early, 
at a time when it still bears a profusion of fresh, nutritious grass. 
Reaching the grazing areas in the mountains when the grass has grown 
to a fair degree of maturity a larger amount of better forage awaits the 
packer, and with a definite knowledge that he will use the same area 
in the following year, he so handles his sheep as not to permanently 
injure the grass. Indeed, he may find it profitable to improve it by 
seeding with good varieties of clover and grass. One owner stated 
that several years ago he had sowed one summer $20 worth of clover 
and grass seed, but that never having been able to secure the same 
range again he got no benefit from his expenditure and had discon- 
tinued all efforts in that direction. With an assured title for a period — 
of years an owner can also put up substantial shelters for his men and 
their provisions. A further advantage of great importance to sheep 
owners is the circumstance that, lying within a forest reserve, the 
erazing lands are not subject to homestead entry, and no one, there- 
fore, by securing a title to the land, can prevent its use as a sheep 
range. By a judicious use of the privilege granted under the proposed 
system the grazing lands of the reserve become a perpetual sheep range. 
To both the State itself and to the general body of sheep owners the 
proposed system is an advantage, from the evident fact that if the 
forest grazing privilege is valuable at all, it is most valuable when the 
