734
Opinion of the Court
knowledged shall be adequately safeguarded, but the creation of a grazing district or the issuance of a permit . . . shall not create any right, title, interest, or estate in or to the lands." Ibid.
C
The Taylor Act delegated to the Interior Department an enormous administrative task. To administer the Act, the Department needed to determine the bounds of the public range, create grazing districts, determine their grazing capacity, and divide that capacity among applicants. It soon set bounds encompassing more than 140 million acres, and by 1936 the Department had created 37 grazing districts, see Department of Interior Ann. Rep. 15 (1935); W. Calef, Private Grazing and Public Lands 58-59 (1960). The Secretary then created district advisory boards made up of local ranchers and called on them for further help. See 2 App. 809-811 (Rules for Administration of Grazing Districts (Mar. 2, 1936)). Limited department resources and the enormity of the administrative task made the boards "the effective governing and administrative body of each grazing district." Calef, supra, at 60; accord, P. Foss, Politics and Grass 199- 200 (1960).
By 1937 the Department had set the basic rules for allocation of grazing privileges. Those rules recognized that many ranchers had long maintained herds on their own private lands during part of the year, while allowing their herds to graze farther afield on public land at other times. The rules consequently gave a first preference to owners of stock who also owned "base property," i. e., private land (or water rights) sufficient to support their herds, and who had grazed the public range during the five years just prior to the Taylor Act's enactment. See 2 App. 818-819 (Rules for Administration of Grazing Districts (June 14, 1937)). They gave a second preference to other owners of nearby "base" property
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