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Show EDITORIAL CUTTING OFF A GOOD NOSE TO SPITE A HUNGRY FACE Last week we received a reprint from a national magazine titled "Give the Cattlemen a Break'" and the article more or less was nothing more than a condemnation condem-nation of the U. S. Grazing Service as it is being operated. oper-ated. The article was reprinted in many newspapers, especially in the cattle sections of the West. For our part, we can't help but believe the cattlemen cattle-men have had an awfully good break for a great many years. When the West was young, the cattlemen ruled it with an iron hand; and used quite a bit of gunpowder in the ruling. They cared not for perpetuation of the range, for when one range was grazed out, they moved their herds into another valley, and if a "nester" had started a homestead at a spring the cattlemen wanted, the nester was unceremoniously moved out. Today, the cattlemen of the west run their stock on the pub lie domain, and they pay a few cents an acre for the privilege. They don't "own" the land, bul they enjoy all the privileges of it for a small fee. The only thorn in their isde is the grazing service. And the grazing service serv-ice is merely trying to perpetuate perpetu-ate the range, so these cattlemen can graze their stock on these lands for many years in the future. fu-ture. Remember how the lumber lum-ber barons of the early 1900's ruined the forests of our nation, until the federal government stepped in with regulations? Today, To-day, because of the ruthlessness of these early lumbermen, our forests are not producing nearly enough lumber to meet the needs of the nation. Today, the ranges of the west are in deplorable condition, and rather than have Uncle Sam's grazing service enforce restrictions restric-tions while they build them up to the point where they'll feed our cattle forever, the cattlemen are hollering because the grazing service wants to help them they're begging the press of the nation, and public opinion, to force the grazing service to allow al-low them to "eat their cake today, to-day, so we'll all go hungry tomorrow." to-morrow." We reprint a few paragraphs from the Beaver County History, being published by the Daughters Daugh-ters of Utah Pioneers: "The Desert Range Branch Experiment Station, located about 50 miles west of Milford, Utah, was established in 1933 to study the management of sheep and cattle and to determine deter-mine the grazing capacity and proper methods of utilization for the arid semidesert areas of the west. The Desert Station is typical of about 50,000,000 acres of range in Utah, central Nevada, southwestern Wyoming, southern south-ern Idaho, and eastern Oregon. Vegetation on these arid ranges is composed chiefly of low shrubs and grasses belonging to what is known as the salt-desert shrub plant association. "Experimental range studies were initiated in 1933. Throughout Through-out the early history, grazing on the vast areas of winter range was entirely unregulated. Cattle herds came with the early set- (Continued on Page Five) bitbrush, shadscale, saltbrush, Russian thistle, and cheatgrass. "These changes came so slowly Ihey were almost unnoticed. un-noticed. Even the invasion of Russian thistle and cheatgrass on large areas of winter range caused little apprehension. Range surveys in 1933-36 in Western Beaver County indicated indi-cated that forage production was far less than the ranges were capable of producing. Approximately 50 of the better forage plants had been killed and thene were practically practic-ally no seedlings of the good forage species. Studies at the Desert -Range Branch Station-- vividly demonstrate demon-strate that forage production can be greatly increased. Today, af-! af-! ter 14 years of managed and conservative grazing, the Desert Station is producing TWO TO THREE TIMES MORE FORAGE THAN SIMILAR HEAVILY GRAZED RANGES. Sheep wintered wint-ered on these moderately grazed ranges winter in eight pounds better flesh, produce one pound more wool per head, produce pro-duce 7 to 10 more lambs, and suffer 5 to 11 less death loss in winter than sheep on heavily grazed winter range in poor condition." We figure that report about speaks for itself. The cattlemen want unrestricted grazing privileges, privi-leges, and the grazing service boys have the idea that a little regulation of grazing privileges will preserve the range for our children, and the children of the cattlemen. And, thru their Beaver Beav-er County experiment station, they've PROVED that they can do the job, and at the same time make MORE MONEY in better beef and sheep for the ranchers. Let's not cut off our nose to spite our stomachs. HERE'S MORE ABOUT CATTLEMEN Continued from Page One tiers and in Western Beaver County, in Wah Wah and Pine Valleys, a large number of cattle cat-tle were grazed year-long. About 1900, sheep herds began to infiltrate to the winter range regions of Western Beaver County. As the flocks and cattle herds increased, competition for forage brought overgrazing; many better forage plants such as black sagebrush, winterfat, bud sagebrush and Indian rice-grass rice-grass were killed out and replaced re-placed by worthless or low value forage plants such as small rab- |