OCR Text |
Show SHEEPMEN IKE STRONGPROTEST j Logan. Dec. 14. The'Cacho County 1 Wool Growers' association has arranged ar-ranged for a meeting between the chief forester and all the sheep men. who graze sheep upon that part of the Cache national forest that is located lo-cated In Utah. The meeting will be hold at the Weber club In Ogden on j Dec. 16. What ar? termed the old sheep men of northern Utah are up in arma concerning con-cerning the' treatment which they claim Is unjustly being given them by the forestry service In the matter of permits for gTazlng. The distinction made between the old and new sheep men Ip the result of the policy of Jhe Interior department to restrict the number of sheep that tho old Bheeij men can get permits to graze. This number is being constantly brought down, resulting in demoralization demorali-zation to tho men who have large flocks, and at the same time giving permits for new sheep men to put out their little flocks. Tho policy results, j say the old dealers, in flooding tho business with a number of Inexperienced Inexperi-enced men, who ire Incapable of running run-ning their flocka at. a good profit In fact, they insist, all men are now j running at a loss rather than at a profit. Flocks Reduced. "As a result of tho treatment which has been accorded us." said a prominent promi-nent sheep man of Logan yesterday, "we mu6t so reduce our flocks that to run them at all means a loss to us. Ten years ago wo could run 10,. 000 shep. Then the present policy j of the forestry department began to cut down the number of sheep we could graze In the Cache national forest reserve. "At the same time small dealers came in for a permit to run 200 or 300 head and thus the total number of sheep on the range wa6 not decreas- ' ed, but we older people had to suffer suf-fer the loss entailed In running small herds. " i "Today," he continued, "there are j 20 small holders who have from 100 to fi00 head They get a permit for j this amount. We who have 2,500 sheep to run In a bunch, which we . can easily handle with two herders, j niusi get several permits together to i accommodate our flocks and put them j on an economical basis i "At the same time the little herd- I er scratches along to keep his little j flock going, and we with him must suffer the consequences of the whole miserable affair The man who knows the sheep business from A to Z cannot can-not use his knowledge, while the man who does not know even A about the matter and runs at a loss because of ! hla Ignorant ways, gets as good an j opportunity to do things as we do. j The only possible outcome is rlemoral- i ization of the sheep business. And that Is Just what wp are coming to." No Restriction. "To make matters worse," he continued, con-tinued, "so their complaint runs, the forestry service Is doing nothing in the way of restricting the operations of the cattle men The cattle men are not cut down as are the sheep 1 men. The cattle can run all over tho I country, yet there are certain set dls- tricts In which sheep can run. And I on this point the old sheep men are sore. "It ought to be," argued the same sheep man, "that those heretofore grating sheep have acquired an equitable equi-table right to continue on their grounds, just as water users obtain such an equitable right. We can't get on our range in the spring as early as we used to;, we can't get as, many ehep there as we used to; we I must get a permit for a fraction of I our flocks, and the rest of them we must skirmish around as best we can, and then in the fall we must get off the range earlier than heretofore." J rf, I |