capacity can only be attributed to the methods used in handling the sheep.

BREEDS OF SHEEP USED

The ewes handled under the various tests were mainly fine-wools, with a good many showing the long-wool characteristic of the Lincolns and Cotswolds, or the typical black and brown faces of the Shropshire and Hampshire. However, the foundation blood consisted mainly of Merino and Rambouillet.

HERDING QUALITIES OF THE VARIOUS BREEDS STUDIED From all observations made during the two seasons, it appears that the fine-wool sheep taken collectively are more easily herded and handled than either the mutton or the coarse-wool breeds.

The western sheepman has never developed a type of sheep which would meet his own special needs. He has taken the various breeds which have originated from the peculiar standards of the various breeders, from environment, and from the varying character of climate, forage and soil, and adapted them as best he could to meet his own varied economic conditions. Because of this intermingling of breeds there are few flocks of pure-bred sheep on our western ranges. Consequently the wool is far from being uniform, the herding qualities vary in different flocks, the lambs produced are decidedly uneven, and the ability to withstand severe winters varies according to the breed of the sheep being handled. However, sheep especially adapted to western range conditions must have the ability to stand severe storms, with little or no protection, and to maintain themselves during periods of drought and starvation; they must be good shearers, and must have an inbred tendency to herd well without unnecessary trailing and straying.

The fine-wool sheep, therefore, have a big advantage on our western ranges over most other breeds because the environment under which they were developed and produced gave them a pronounced ability to sustain themselves on scanty coarse feed.

As rustlers they are entitled to first place. On account of this active rustling habit, they are more particularly adapted than other breeds for grazing on our rough broken ranges where they are forced to cover a large area in order to get their feed. Further, sheep on our Nevada ranges are kept to average age of seven to eight years, and the fine-wool breeds will hold their wool better than any other breed to this age. The mutton breeds soon become light shearers, the wool getting especially thin over the stomachs. Of all the breeds observed, the fine-wools utilized the range forage most efficiently; and their lambs, produced by crossing blocky mutton-bred sires, were the most promising on the range.

HERDERS

In Nevada prac

The herders in every instance were Basques. tically all of the sheep are handled by this class of herders. As a general rule, after being given the proper instructions they are very reliable and conscientious shepherds. The herders who handled the sheep under observation all had more or less ability and displayed considerable energy, but they did not handle their flocks in the same manner. This difference in the methods of handling, offered an

Figure 2. Running the wool and mutton off the sheep. The lazy herder's way of herding. His lambs would weigh at the end of the season from 5 to 7 pounds more if all the unnecessary dogging and running were cut out:

excellent opportunity for working out comparative range-carrying capacity tests, and average daily gains made by lambs under the existing methods of handling sheep on our public domain range. The greatest difference in the methods of the various herders was that a few changed their bed-ground daily and allowed their sheep at all times to graze openly and quietly, while others close-herded their sheep and returned them each night to an established camp until all the feed within a radius of two to three miles was grazed off. Then the camp would be moved by the camp-tender and a new bed-ground made on some other part of the range. A comparison of the two systems follows.

ESTABLISHED BED-GROUND SYSTEM

When the animals are handled under this system a main camp is established to which the sheep are returned each night and bedded down. On this bed-ground with the herder they remain all night without any attention until early morning, when they commence to become restless, because their stomachs are empty and they are anxious to begin feeding. The herder must now be on duty to direct them toward the area where he wishes them to graze during the day.

BEDDING-OUT SYSTEM

Under the system just explained the sheep are returned to a permanent bed-ground each night, but with the bedding-out system they are allowed to bed down on a new area each night. This means a new bed-ground every day or a new bed-ground every third day in case of wet or stormy weather, when it would be impracticable to move camp. However, under Nevada conditions, there are but few nights during the summer when it is wet and cold, so that, practically speaking, it is entirely feasible to have a new bed-ground every night.

Under this system, rather than to graze the vicinity of a camp to full capacity and injure or ruin the range forage as under the old system, it is left in good condition and grazed again at a later date. The sheep are always on fresh feed, which allows them to graze during the cool morning and evening hours and to seek shade during the hot part of the day.

As soon as the sheep leave the bed-ground in the morning they immediately begin to spread out; some going in one direction and some in another. Some travel fast and others slow. In a short time if they are not checked they will have spread over a large area, and instead of being in a compact bunch, as they were when they left the bed-ground, they will have commenced to separate into smaller bunches.

At this stage, or even before, the lazy herder, or the one who uses the "close-bunched" herding system of handling, resorts to the use of the dogs and soon has the sheep rounded up into a more or less compact bunch. Dogging, running, and trailing go on all day until the sheep are returned at night to the bed-ground.

Some indifferent herders continually use their dogs in order to keep the tail end of the herd up with the leaders; but the energetic conscientious herder will keep himself moving around the outside of the flock constantly turning or retarding the leaders. This allows

Figure 3. Sheep ready to bed down at evening on a new bed-ground. If the bed-ground is changed daily, the lambs will grow more rapidly, and the range will not be abused.

all the animals to graze contentedly with the greatest possible chance to exercise choice in the selection of forage. The sheep are allowed to bed down wherever they may be when night overtakes them.

If the heaviest range lambs are to be produced from a given piece of range, the system outlined above must be used. The ideal way of handling sheep on the range should approach as nearly as possible the manner of grazing within a pasture where the animals do the least amount of trailing from one place to another and where they are at all times allowed to graze openly and quietly without being disturbed. Of course, it is impossible under our present public domain conditions to handle sheep on the range under fence; but the pasturage system should be the ideal and should be approached as closely as possible. This means that tail-end herding must be done away with and the herding take place from the sides and front, the herder continually turning at all times the fast-trailing leaders. The slow-grazing sheep which are feeding in the rear of the flock will not then have to keep up with the fast-trailing leaders. This gives all the animals in the flock an equal chance to fill in the shortest possible time.

This is by no means a lazy man's way of herding, but it means an increase in the carrying capacity of the range, and means the production of heavier range lambs, fatter ewes, and fewer cripples. It simply means grazing with the least possible herding or actual driving. It allows the sheep to graze continually in the cool morning hours and to "buck up" during the heat of the day. It permits them to graze with quiet natural freedom, which favors the most efficient production of wool and mutton.

EQUIPMENT NECESSARY UNDER EACH SYSTEM

Under the old system of returning to an established camp each night the herder is usually supplied with two tents. One he uses for cooking and for storing supplies; the other he sleeps in. Frequently, however, the cook tent is very close to the bed-ground, so that he may use it if he wishes for cooking, storage, and sleeping. Generally he is not supplied with any means of transportation, depending entirely upon the camp-tender to do all of the moving of his camp supplies.

When the bedding-out system of one-night camps is used, the herder must have a horse or a burro on which he can lash his tent, bed, and provisions every day for transportation to the newly established bed-ground. A burro will carry the average summerweight bed all day and never feel any discomfort; and, further, he will graze as one of the sheep. He is a very hardy inexpensive animal and will graze almost any area where sheep will feed. On some ranges the herders carry their beds on their backs to the new bed-ground. However, on most ranges it will pay a lot better to

use a burro.

The most practical tent for the herder is a tepee. In heavy storms it gives the best protection, and when transported it is very easily taken down and set up. It is light in weight and not at all bulky. Possibly the most convenient way of carrying bed and tent is simply to take down the tepee in the morning, lash it on the burro, turn him