Preferences to graze live stock on the forest ranges are for the most part granted to stockmen who own improved ranch property and live in or near one of the National Forests.  The fee for grazing on forest ranges is based on a yearlong rate of $1.20 a head of cattle, $1.50 for horses, $.90 for hogs and $.30 a head for sheep.

At times it is necessary, for short periods, to prohibit grazing on the Government forest ranges.  For example, when mature timber has been cut from certain areas, it is essential that sheep be kept off such tracts until the young growth has made a good start in natural reforestation.  Camping grounds needed for recreation purposes by the public are excluded from the grazing range.  If a shortage of the water supply of a neighboring town or city threatens, or if floods or erosion become serious due to fire or overgrazing of the land, the range is closed to live-stock and allowed to recuperate.  Where artificial planting is practiced, grazing is often forbidden until the young trees get a good start.

The total receipts which Uncle Sam collects from the 30,000 or more stockmen who graze their cattle and sheep on the National Forests amount to nearly $2,500,000 annually.  As a result of the teachings of the Forest Service, the stockmen are now raising better livestock.  Improved breeding animals are kept in the herds and flocks.  Many of the fat stock now go directly from the range to the market.  Formerly, most of the animals had to be fed on corn and grain in some of the Middle Western States to flesh them for market.  Experiments have been carried on which have shown the advantages of new feeding and herding methods.  The ranchers have banded together in livestock associations, which cooeperate with the Forest Service in managing the forest ranges.

It costs about $5 to sow one acre of ground to tree seed, and approximately $10 an acre to set out seedling trees.  The seed is obtained from the same locality where it is to be planted.  In many instances, cones are purchased from settlers who make a business of gathering them.  The Federal foresters dry these cones in the sun and thresh out the seed, which they then fan and clean.  If it is desired to store supplies of tree seed from year to year it is kept in sacks or jars, in a cool, dry place, protected from rats and mice.  Where seed is sown directly on the ground, poison bait must be scattered over the area in order to destroy the gophers, mice and chipmunks which otherwise would eat the seed.  Sowing seed broadcast on unprepared land has usually failed unless the soil and weather conditions were just right.  For the most part, setting out nursery seedlings has given better results than direct seeding.  Two men can set out between five hundred and one thousand trees a day.