112 WESTERN GRAZING GROUNDS AND FOREST RANGES 



the most successful raisers are those who graze their 

 hogs on the open ranges while the crop of acorns and 

 other feed is plentiful, taking them up and feeding them 

 corn when the range feed is short. Still there are many 

 hogs raised the year around on the range, just as are 

 the cattle and sheep. 



In many districts hogs are treated much the same as 

 the cattle. They are ear-marked and branded by their 

 owners, rounded up at stated times and taken home for 

 killing or sale. I have seen hog roundups in the Tonto 

 Basin country in Arizona where hundreds of the ani- 

 mals, wild as deer, and some of them fierce as tigers, 

 were gathered together. The young were ear-marked 

 and branded exactly like cattle. Those needed for kill- 

 ing were cut out and driven home, and the rest were 

 turned out on the range to take care of themselves for 

 another year. 



In northern California, where the mountain lions and 

 other predatory animals make heavy inroads on hogs, 

 the owners place large cowbells upon the sows. A double 

 strap is generally used, one about the neck and the 

 other behind the fore legs and connected with a strap 

 to the front one. A bunch of old sows lying peacefully 

 in a hidden mudhole in the thick oaks and suddenly dis- 

 turbed will make about as alarming a racket as can well 

 be imagined enough to frighten away any marauding 

 animal with pork-eating proclivities. 



The raising of hogs under these conditions is satis- 

 factory, so long as they can range in a region not occu- 

 pied by settlers and their farms. Where there are fields 

 and gardens with irrigation ditches, hogs are a great 

 source of trouble and must naturally be legislated 

 against. This is also true in mining districts, where wa- 



