REFERENCES
Report of National Conservation Commission.
The Conservation of Mineral Resources. U. S. Government Reports.
Report of the U. S. Geological Survey.
Production of Gold in 1908. U. S. Government Reports.
Production of Silver in 1908.
Production of Lead in 1908.
Production of Zinc in 1908.
Production of Structural Materials.
About twenty pamphlets on other minerals.
[CHAPTER IX]
ANIMAL FOODS
GRAZING
Food is of two classes: vegetable, which comes directly from the earth, and animal, which has fed on vegetable life. This is, of course, a more concentrated form of food, and much less of it is needed to sustain life.
For the plentiful supply of vegetable food we must depend upon the fertility of the soil, as we have seen. Our animal food can not be classed among our natural resources, but as a product of them, and requires the same care and wise use.
In the early history of our country natural animal food was abundant. Fishes swarmed in the sea, lakes, and streams. Wild turkeys and other game birds, deer, and bison formed a large part of the food of our forefathers. But these have been gradually disappearing. We have caught and destroyed so many fish that we have only a fraction of our former number. The game birds have disappeared either because they have been killed in great numbers or because their nesting-places have been destroyed. Of the big game nothing is now left except in a few remote regions, and it is growing less plentiful each year.
Although large quantities of fish and game are marketed every year at certain seasons, they form a small fraction of the animal food required in the country, and we must now depend for most of our animal food, not on that which was at first given us for a natural resource but on that raised by man.
The poultry—the chickens, ducks, geese and turkeys; the cattle, beef and dairy, the hogs and the sheep that are raised in such vast numbers have taken the place of wild game. The cultivated varieties have higher food value, and are far more satisfactory, since they are ready for use at any time.
The conservation of our animal food resources presents a different problem from any other. It is true that we have wasted and exhausted our natural food supplies, but we must remember that to a certain extent their preservation was neither possible nor desirable. They have been driven out by advancing civilization.
Wild birds and animals leave as the forests are cut out, destroying their natural homes. Many of them can not be kept in captivity, so this supply never could have been regulated. It was necessary to destroy some of them to insure man's safety, and others were needed for his use. But we can take their places with other animals which are better fitted for our food, and it is the task of keeping up a sufficient supply of these on the most suitable land and under conditions that will yield the best results, that constitutes the problem of the conservation of our animal food resources.
The raising of poultry and live stock on a large scale is a separate occupation, usually followed in a scientific manner and it is not of that industry that we need to speak, but rather of the benefit to every farmer and to the dwellers in small communities, of raising at least a part of the animal food used by the family.
Every farm has some bits of unoccupied land that can be fenced off for poultry. The gleanings from the fields will supply their food, and they will furnish meat and eggs for the family throughout the year, with enough left to sell to provide other comforts.
Live stock, cattle, sheep and hogs, as well as goats, horses and mules, are profitable to every farmer. Many farms have woodland; land that overflows at some seasons, and so is unfit for raising crops; or some rocky unproductive land where stock can be raised more profitably than anything else, and if every farmer would use all the land not suitable for farm crops for pasture land the problem of an abundant meat supply, of dairy products and of fertilizers to enrich the soil would be largely solved. Some farming experts advocate letting each field in turn be used for pasture every five years, because the stock raised on it is equal in value to any other farm crop, and because the rest and fertilization almost double the value of the succeeding year's crop.
In the West and Southwest there are large tracts of public land untilled. Much of the land can never be used for agricultural purposes, because it is arid or mountainous.
This land is well adapted to grazing and the government has allowed free use of it to stockmen as pasture lands.
These public pasture lands are called "ranges." In the early years when this part of the country belonged to Mexico, the ranges were traversed by Indians and Mexicans who tended the herds of wild cattle and horses, raised mostly for their hides. But in the last quarter of a century the business has fallen into the hands of Americans who have introduced better breeds of higher value. In California, Arizona, and New Mexico there are now on the open ranges eight million sheep, nearly three million cattle and nearly a million horses, worth much more than one hundred million dollars. Wyoming and Utah have great sheep ranges and do much to keep up the wool supply. On Texas, with its great cattle ranges, we depend for a large part of our beef and leather. In all these states where stock is fed on public land, there are many questions as to ownership of animals, rights of rival rangers, and other points to settle.
In some of these states the government has set aside national forest reserves. Within these is much good grazing land. In order that the government may have some revenue from the land, a regular price has been set on these forest lands. The charge is forty cents a year each for horses, thirty-five cents a year for cattle, and twelve cents for sheep. The land is properly divided, so that each kind of stock has suitable pasture. Each person who pays this tax is given a certain range and no one else is allowed to use it. There is sufficient pasture for each so that it need not be too closely cropped. A man may lease the same range year after year, may put down wells to supply his stock, live on it, and do many things to improve it.
The forest rangers who patrol the forest to watch for fires or for timber thieves also protect these stockmen in their rights and prevent trouble about grazing privileges.
Outside the forest reserves the grazing is free, but the advantages offered by this system are so great that nearly all rangers now wish to use the forest reserves.
As each ranger has his land assigned to him and no one else can use it, the grass is not overcropped as it often is in regions outside the forests. If pasture is good, so many herds are pastured there that soon the grass is all trampled down and eaten off. Large areas are so badly injured that it will not naturally resod itself.
Cattle men are asking that the same rules that apply to the national forests be applied to other public lands, so that the pasturage may be improved and each man may have protection in his rights.
If all grazing lands could be thus leased, it would give the business a far more permanent character, better breeds of stock would be raised, and individual owners would direct their efforts to improving both stock and pasture, after the manner of stock raisers on private lands.
So large a part of our animal food, our wool, our leather and many smaller needs depend on this industry, that every effort should be made to encourage it, and to provide the wisest laws and best methods both for conserving and developing it.
In conclusion it is interesting to note that the Department of Agriculture is making a study of food birds and animals in various parts of the world, and trying to domesticate them, to add to the variety of our food supply. The quail, the golden pheasant and some species of grouse among birds, and two or three species of deer, including the reindeer, appear to be adapted to domestic life in this country, and may, before many years, become a part of the animal industry of the United States.