30 BULLETIN 1089, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
In allotting the range for natives or other small owners large 
community units rather than numerous small individual allotments 
should be the rule. The topography of the country and the ad- 
vantage of handling reindeer more like cattle than sheep requires 
large range allotments for economical and efficient management. 
Allotment units should include winter, summer, and fawning range. 
It would be impracticable to make smaller subdivisions to meet the 
requirements of owners of varying small herds, with the necessary 
provision for seasonal grazing ; such allotments would make it hard 
to control individual herds and to prevent losses. 
While reindeer can be handled successfully on the range, they are 
not so amenable to control as are sheep. Herding must be done by 
men on foot aided by dogs, but open herding on large ranges to insure 
proper range use is the best method of handling a reindeer herd and 
approximates more nearly cattle grazing. As in cattle grazing, 
the maintenance of necessary control between allotments is more of 
a problem than with sheep, and emphasizes the need of larger graz- 
ing units as against a small checkerboard system. Aside from this 
the cost of running large herds will be less in proportion than in 
smaller ones, and will thus increase efficiency in control and econ- 
omy in production. Anticipating the filling up of the ranges to 
their carrying capacity, small owners, particularly the Eskimos, 
should begin promptly to organize community or cooperative herds 
with a view to holding the necessary grazing areas. 
OVERGRAZING. 
Overgrazing has been defined as " grazing which, when continued 
one or more years, reduces the forage crop or results in an unde- 
sirable change in the kind of forage." 10 It may be general over an 
entire range unit, caused by overstocking; or it may be merely local 
and due to poor distribution of the stock or improper handling. In 
Alaska, under present practice, local overgrazing often results from 
both of these causes, and general overgrazing from overstocking does 
not occur. 
What local overgrazing there is at present may be attributed 
mainly to the method of handling — involving close herding (PL 
XIII, Fig. 2) ; to holding the herd on a relatively small piece of 
range year after year; and in some cases close to the coast to using 
the same range both summer and winter. This localizing of the 
herds is largely due to the introduction of close herding by the 
Lapps and to the fact that the average native is inclined to stay near 
his village and the coast, where he may devote part of his time to 
fishing or hunting seals. Many of the natives working with the 
herds have not become essentially reindeer men, but remain, as for- 
10 Jardine, James T., and Mark Anderson, Op. cit, pp. 16-29. 
