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Show -i ' J- MANTI NATIONAL 1 FOREST NOTES -I : 1- During the past season our timber tim-ber sale business was hardly up to average. The Excelsior froaucts pany will operate on tnis forest ctur- chased between 600 and 800 cords 01 aspen excelsior material from the luanti forest. At the present time it is not known whether this company com-pany y ill operate on this forest during dur-ing tne season of 1926 or whether tney will concentrate their cuttings on one of the neighboring forests to the north. During the past four years the Engelmann Spi-uce (white pine) has been suffering from an attack by bark beetles. During the past two years we have had quite a number of trap trees cut and we have also had as many of the trees suffering from the beetle attack cut and removed re-moved and the slabs burned in an attempt to check a further spread of the infestation. Hyrum Jensen of Spring Ciijy called at the supervisor's olfice on December 28, bringing samples of the Asclepias galioides which were collected,' on, the East ulesertj Mr. Jensen reports that there is no snow at all on the East desert- at this time and that it is necessary for sheep to depend on watering at the river and water holes. He reports also that cattle are doing fairly well and that sheep are doing only fair while wild 'horses are thin and many of them are dying from starvation. According to Mr. Jensen, the coyotes are not bad on the east winter range this year due possibly to the thorough poison campaign conducted by the Biological Survey last summer. sum-mer. At the head of Salina canyon the loads are somewhat muddy and there is but little snow on the top of the divide. Reports from the sheep range on the West desert are to the effect that snow has been somewhat scarce in many places and that- due to the warm, dry weather the feed did not appear to be very good. However, sheep look exceptionally good for this season of the year. The new commensurability standards stan-dards for the Manti . forest as approved ap-proved by Assistant District Forester For-ester Winkler, under date of December Decem-ber 28, provided for the ownership of crop producing lands or spring, fall, or winter grazing grounds sufficient suf-ficient to carry the permitted stock for a period of at least sixty days during the time the stock are off the forest. The District Forester has notified the supervisor's office to the effect that on and after January 1, 1926, no. reductions in transfers of grazing- preferences will be made where the number purchased together with the number already held under permit per-mit by the purchaser is less than the protective limit numbers. The protective pro-tective limit for cattle on the Manti forest is 20 head, for sheep it is 200 head. Attention is also clled to the fact" that the holdings of husband and wife and unmarried minor children child-ren will be combined in determining whetherf or not the head of the family fam-ily is within the protective limit for either or both classes of stock. In other words, if the wife holds a permit per-mit for 20 head of cattle or 200 sheep, the husband would to considered con-sidered as holding protective 'Jimit number and any renewal of grazing preference to him would be subject to the reductions applied on trans- 1 fers above the protective limit. Ranger Ollerton made a trip to the Mammoth ranger station on the last of December to measure the snow. He. reports finding 24 inches of snow at the station with water content of 6 inches. Ranger Thursby measured the snow at the Great Basin experiment station on January 4, and reports finding 29 inches of j snow with a water content of 5 J inches. , j |