t acquaint himself with the
brands and marks of the various owners, and should be well posted in the
essentials of the business of raising cattle, sheep, and horses. The
allotment of grazing areas is one of the most difficult problems to
adjust, because the demand is almost always for much more range than is
available and the division of what range there is among the local owners
of stock often presents serious difficulties, in which the Ranger's
local knowledge and advice is constantly sought by his superior officer.

There is a wise law, passed at the request of the Forest Service, under
which land in the National Forests which is shown to be agricultural may
be entered under the homestead law, and used for the making of homes.
This law is peculiarly hard to carry out because the ceaseless efforts
of land grabbers to misuse it demand great vigilance on the part of the
Forest Officers. In many cases it is the Ranger who makes the report
upon which the decision as to the agricultural or non-agricultural
character of the land is based, although in other cases the
examinations to determine whether the land is really agricultural in
character are made by Examiners especially trained for this duty.
Serious controversies into which politics enter are often caused by the
efforts of speculators and others, under pretext of this law, to get
possession of lands chiefly valuable for their timber.

The building and maintenance of trails, telephone lines, roads, bridges,
and fences in his District is under the charge of the Ranger, and in
many cases Rangers and Forest Guards are appointed by the State as
Wardens to see to it that the game and fish laws are properly enforced.

Next to the protection of his District from fire, the most important
duty of the Ranger has to do with the sale of timber and the marking of
the individual trees which are to be cut. The reproduction of the forest
depends directly on what trees are kept for seed, or on how the
existing young growth is protected and preserved in felling and swamping
the trees which have been marked for cutting, and in skidding the logs.
The disposal of the slash must be looked after, for it has much to do
with forest reproduction, and with promoting safety from fire. Then, the
scaling of the logs determines the amount of the payment the Government
receives for its timber, and there are often regulations governing the
transportation of the scaled logs whose enforcement is of gr