ves.

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.

FISHERIES

One who has never seen the big catches of fish brought in by a mackerel
fleet or visited a wholesale fish market can have little idea of the
importance of that industry, nor of the immense amount of food that is
taken from the waters of the United States every year.

The word fish is made to include not only fish proper, but oysters,
clams, scallops, lobsters, crabs, shrimps, and turtles. Fish is liked by
most persons, is more easily digested than meat and is nourishing. As a
food resource, it is different in many respects from any other. It does
not exhaust the soil, nor take from the earth anything of value, the
food of fishes consisting of water plants and animals that are not used
by man in any other way. Fish also purify the water in which they live,
and so cause a great, though indirect, benefit.

It is so plainly the wise thing, then, to keep our rivers stocked wi