58 BULLETIN 1001, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
land they had been using taken out of the national forests when these 
forests were first established and whose requests were granted, have 
since become just as anxious to have these same lands restored to the 
forests in order that they might benefit by the very system of control 
that was originally feared. Such a procedure would merely be the 
equivalent of extending the system now in use in the forests to such 
lands. 
In the opinion of the writer there is good reason for the inaugura- 
tion of a system of control of the arid grazing lands closely similar to 
that in use in the national forests; but to include unforested grazing 
lands within these forests in order to establish such a system on the 
arid grazing lands would give rise to just criticism, since these forests 
are primarily forested areas, while the arid grazing lands are not 
forest lands, and never will be. The argument that areas of unfor- 
ested lands now do occur in places in the national forests, is only an 
argument for their elimination where possible, instead of for the 
introduction of others. 
Any sort of permit system makes it necessary for capable officials 
to determine with reasonable accuracy the grazing capacity of a 
large region and formulate a plan for the region during a given season 
before they can begin to allot animals to specific areas. They must 
know the preferences of the stockmen, the possible uses of the dif- 
ferent parts of the grazing area, its fitness for different kinds of animals, 
and many other details of its possible adaptations to use. All these 
details must be known before any fair and at the same time economic 
allotment of stock can be made. Hence this system leads to a careful 
consideration of a large region with a view to its best management. 
The leasing system usually lacks this characteristic. 
If the grand divisions of the grazing region were made so as to in- 
clude areas suited to a single type or complementary types of busi- 
ness, the management would become a simpler problem and there 
would be less probability of serious conflict of interests arising. It is 
probable, however, that district boundaries should ordinarily cor- 
respond with State lines so that rulings as to control would not meet 
the difficulty of adjustment to more than one set of State laws. 
Perhaps as strong an argument as any in favor of this system of 
control lies in the fact that it can be applied in any place, whatever 
state of development the business may be in at the time of its appli- 
cation. The system can be made to fit where the business is highly 
organized and specialized or with equal ease where the reverse is true. 
It will work where the holdings are large or where they are small. It 
requires no radical change in general management and yet makes 
gradual adjustments not only possible, but by its very nature tends 
to improve the organization of the business of the region. It is a 
restraining influence upon aggressively domineering men and an 
