 Prior to the 19th century, the traditional practice of grazing the open range in the United States was rarely disputed because of the sheer amount of unsettled open land.However, as the population of the western United States increased in the mid-to-late 19th century, range wars often erupted over the ranchers' perceived rights to graze their cattle as the western range deteriorated with overuse.In 1934, the Taylor Grazing Act formally set out the federal government's powers and policy on grazing federal lands in the western United States by establishing the Division of Grazing and procedures for issuing permits to graze federal lands for a fixed period of time.