In the preceding comparison a district of the public domain was taken which grazed approximately an equal number of sheep as the forest. The difference in grazing days is due to the longer grazing period on the public domain. In this comparison, as in the one which follows, argument will no doubt present itself to the effect that these are not the only sheep grazed on the forest and that for the balance of the sheep there is not nearly so large an investment in privately owned lands and improvements. This is more than balanced by the fact that the public domain considered also carries a large number of sheep besides those considered and that there is a smaller ratio of privately owned land for these sheep than for the balance on the forest.

Ward & Schell Creek Divisions, forest grazing:

Acres privately owned....

3, 240

$12, 960 $4,500

$17, 460

$1, 396. 80 1, 273, 312

$0.001097 .000940

.002017

2, 760

$11, 040

$7, 370

$18, 410

Total value____

Interest on value at 8 per cent...

Sheep-grazing days received.......

Investment interest cost per sheep day..

$1, 472. 80

2, 231, 194 $0.000660

Cattle-grazing days....

Investment interest cost per cow-grazing day.

Equivalent cost per sheep-grazing day, ratio 4 to 1.

0.0024325

The herding charge for the sheep grazed on and off the forest in the previous examples has been the same. In the herding of the cattle in the Steptoe pastures there is a marked reduction in costs, and it should be credited to the pastures in comparing them with the cost of forest grazing.

Accurate records are used in computing the herding costs in the following comparisons.

White Pine Forest, grazing:

Interest and fee total.

Herding cost per sheep day.

$0. 004067

.006166

010233

.0024325

.0011740

0036065

Total

This indicates that the cost per sheep day on the White Pine Forest is 2.84 times the cost on Steptoe pastures.

Forest cost, herding, and fee per sheep day, which sum does not in

clude any interest_ _

Steptoe pasture total cost per sheep day.

$0.007106 .003606

Which shows the White Pine Forest cost per sheep day to be practically twice that on Steptoe pasture even though interest on privately owned lands be not included.

Ward & Schell Creek Forest costs per sheep day including interest,

fee, and herding---

Steptoe pastures total cost per sheep day.

$0.008183 .003606

This again indicates a markedly lower cost per sheep day for Steptoe pastures, though the comparison is more favorable to the forest than the White Pine division costs.

GENERAL FACTS RELATING TO THE LIVESTOCK INDUSTRY

The precarious financial condition of the livestock industry for the past three years is universally admitted by all authorities in economic and financial circles. The many reasons of a complex nature advanced for this condition prohibit the placing of the whole responsibility for the condition or any quick and certain solution of the problem. We of the livestock industry can but urge that the powers of administration in control of such factors as appear to be fundamentally the basis of our troubles give our condition careful study to the end that we may again prosper and in so doing advance the general prosperity of our State and Nation. Government loans through the War Finance Corporation to the livestock industry have met in a measure the immediate crisis, but other factors controlling our prosperity have failed to adjust themselves so as to insure s recovery of the industry during this emergency aid. The financing of the livestock industry for a short period has been a measure by the Government to prevent a total collapse and the attendant national panic. However, this messure does not alter the existing relation between wages, taxes, supplies, money cost, and the market returns, which factors must harmoniously correlate if the success of any industry is to be insured. We admit our inability to offer a solution in entity for this problem, but a few facts are so strongly presented to our notice that we desire to present them for attention.

Curves showing relation of wages and farmers supplies costs. Purchasing power of a unit of livestock

1920, and which is still true to a marked degree. In 1919 illiterate, Basque sheep herders as young as 16 years were receiving as high as $135 per month and all expenses, which included clothing.

The relative purchasing power of a unit of livestock as shown by the curve on this chart is computed from Table 321, page 825, of Year Book, 1920. The wide variance between the cost of production curves and the net return curve in their general trends is a good criterion of what should be expected and/what is actually the fact in the condition of the livestock industry. The entire absence of parallel is seen at a glance.

CHART No. 1

Labor and supplies are the principal factors of production costs in the livestock industry. The relation of the purchasing power of the livestock produced to these elements governs to a large extent the prosperity of the industry. The curves on this chart are taken from the Year Books of the United States Department of Agriculture, as noted on charts. The curve for farm wages as relating to the livestock industry would in all probability be steeper than indicated by the curve for all farm labor, due to the exorbitant wages demanded in 1919 and

CHART No. 2

Livestock prices have kept pace with the range fees on the national forest till the year 1918, when a slump in meat prices began. The sudden drop in the livestock-prices curve from 1919 to 1921 shows a decline unparalleled by any other factors affecting the prosperity of the livestock industry. It appears to follow the axiom "All going out and nothing coming in." The figures for the livestock prices of 1920-21 are taken from year book of Swift & Co., as same were not available from the Department of Agriculture.

The range-fee curve is obtained by simple division of the total revenue to the

Forest Service from grazing by the total number of stock grazed without classification. It is therefore unweighted and slightly in error, but nevertheless shows the general trend of the unit charges by National Forest Service. The vital question to the livestock industry in view of the range appraisal now in progress is, "Which way will the curve go next?"

CHART No. 3

Under Table 302, page 737, of United States Department of Agriculture Year Book for 1920 is shown the relative prices of 1-inch lumber as purchased by the farmer. This is therefore assumed to be the retail price of lumber. This curve shows a steady increase from 1911 to 1920, reaching a point 252 per cent of the base. A smooth curve logically ascending with the increasing scarcity of timber.

The curve showing the Forest Service average sale prices per unit of stumpage has a decidedly downward trend. The curve is also extremely erratic. It is realized that there are numerous factors, such as the increased costs of cuttings, transportation, milling, etc., which affect this price, but the extreme divergence of these two curves leads us to wonder if the stumpage price is not entitled to absorb its pro rata of the increased cost in parallel with grazing fees.