16 
Formerly large losses were occasioned by the disease known as sheep 
scab. A State quarantine and inspection law, however, caused a 
decided decrease in its prevalence, and, finally, another still more pow- 
erful factor, the lowering of the price of wool resulting in a total lack 
of profits on scabby sheep, has now made the disease almost unknown. 
STATISTICS OF SHEEP GRAZED WITHIN THE RESERVE. 
One of the first pieces of information it was desired to secure was a 
reliable estimate of the number of sheep ranged within the reserve. 
The estimates secured from different sources varied so greatly, how- 
ever, that they all were necessarily treated as unsatisfactory, and it 
was resolved to take an actual census on the ground. This was done 
by repeated inquiry of herders, packers, owners, and residents having a 
definite knowledge of the various bands. The data thus secured include 
the name of each owner or lessee, the number of his bands, the num- 
ber of sheep in each band, the place on which they were grazing when 
the record was made, and the county in which the sheep were owned. 
The publication of all the details is unnecessary and undesirable, but a _ 
summary of the data gives the following statistics. 
The total number of sheep recorded as ranging on the Cascade 
reserve is 188,360, contained in 86 bands, an average of 2,190 sheep 
per band. Classified by size the bands are as follows: 
Number and size of bands on reserve. 
Size of | Number | Size of | Number | 
band. of bands.| band. of bands. 
a1, 000 2 2, 300 | 4 
1. 400 2 2, 400 | 3 
1, 600 4 2,500! 622 
1, 700 1 2,700 | 3 
1, 800 5 2, 800 | 1 
1, 900 2 2,900 | 1 
| 2, 000 28 3, 000 2 | 
2, 100 1 3, 200 fie 
| 2, 200 3 | 3, 500 a 
a This means not less than 950 nor more than 1,049. The same relation holds for the rest of the 
table. 
b The exceptionally large number of bands containing 2,000 and 2,500 is due to the fact that only 
estimates (instead of an actual count) of the number of sheep in some of the bands could be made by 
those from whom the information was secured, and that in making these estimates a person is much 
more likely to say 2,000 than 1,900 or 2,100, and 2,500 rather than 2,400 or 2,600. 
Bands of less than 1,600 are usually owned by young men who are 
making a start in the business; bands of more than 2,700 by owners 
who are ranging their sheep in unusually open country, or who are 
injudiciously trying to save the hire of an additional herder. Of the 
various expenses entailed in running a band of sheep the wages of the 
herder and packer, the cost of their provisions, and the cost of their 
outfit are fixed charges, whatever the number of sheep in the band. 
With a small band the net profits per head are therefore less. Witha 
larger band, the net profits per head increase until the band reaches 
