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Show oo NEW RANGE IS FOUND FOR SHEER IN THE FDHEST Owing to the recognized shortage of beef and mutton products through, out the United 8tates. the forest service ser-vice has been maklnc a special effort ef-fort during tho past few years to develop de-velop methods of range management on the national forests which will result re-sult In 'he most complete utilization of the range without Injury to the forage nnd young trees, which mlcut be trampled or killed by too Inten-i Inten-i sive grazing There are also thou -1 sands of acres of timbered ranee I within the national forests which are I not now considered as having a graz-I graz-I lng value by practical stockmen who are accustomed to using tho more ! open grasslands outside the national ! forests. In order to demonstrate the value of the unused ranges in District 4. and further to perfect methods I management which w-l!l enable the I stockmen to harvest the foraso crop Ion timherlands without Injuring the small trees, an experiment was initiated ini-tiated last year on the Payette national na-tional forest in southern Idaho The range selected was n virgin area previously pre-viously ungrazed. which the members mem-bers of tho forest service considered as one producing forage sufficient to sustain approximately lo.noo head of sheep during the regular summer grazing season. A detailed reconnaissance recon-naissance was made of a sufficient area to support in the judgment of tbe forest officers, two ' bands of sheep of 1500 head each When this work was completed a prominent j sheepman of southeastern Idaho fur-I fur-I nlsbed two herds to be used In the ' experiment. One of thesp herds was handled by tha sheepman himself. without restriction, the other was 1 placed under tho direct supervision of a graduate of the Logan Agricultural Agricul-tural college, employed by the forest service, with instructions to perfect so far as possible methods of handling handl-ing the stock which would require the minimum amount of range to produce pro-duce maximum results without In-Jury In-Jury to the rang-. At the eud of hv season the average weight of the lambs in the herd under tbe supervision super-vision of the forest service exceeded the average weight of the lambs in the check herd by five pounds. HuriiiK the season ol ihU the ex pertinent whs continued, and tbe meth ods employed by the forest expert were also followed as closelv as possible possi-ble by the other herders The 6heep j entered the range on June 20. the av-erase av-erase w eight being on that date .'J pound9 for the lambs and 91 pounds i for the ewes In the check band, ami ' .3 for the lambs and 98.6 for the ewes in the experimental band hau-dled hau-dled under the supervision of the forest for-est officers. At the close of the sea son. September 2' the average Weight! were 77!' pounds for the lambs and 1"7 pounds for the ewes In the check herd, and 77 9 pounds for i he lambs and 11 4 pounds for the ewo6 in the experimental band grazed under, forest service supervision This is an increase In weight of 38.8 pouuds for the lambs and 16 pounds for tho ewes in the check band, and 38.6 pounds I for the lambs nnd 15.8 pounds for th-ewes th-ewes in the experimental band. This increase in weight, which was put on In a period of 90 days, on ' range previously considered as having no practical value, has demonstrated to the satisfaction of the officers of the forest service, and will also probably prob-ably proe to fh- sheepmen that the range can be utilized verv profitably for sheep grazing put puses Mr. Fenn, in charge of the grazing j department In tho Oj:den office, sta- I ted today that the weight of the Iamb3 on September 20 was considerably above the average for the ranges on the national lorests In Utah, Nevada. Idaho and western Wyominq oo |