116 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW 



built for the convenience of the one who wishes to 

 live outdoors. There is no longer the excuse of 

 ignorance for burning up 40,000 acres by an aban- 

 doned campfire, as was done last summer. 



Of domestic animals, the sheep and the goat are 

 the most destructive to trees. They eat the young 

 ones closer to the ground than do cattle, and give 

 them less chance to recuperate. Then, their sharp 

 hoofs sink in the soil and cut them to pieces. Be- 

 cause of the necessity to increase our food supply in 

 the early years of the war, sheep were permitted in 

 the grazing areas in the Forest Reserves where they 

 never before had been allowed. In four years, they 

 have changed the flora of the hillslopes. No plant 

 has a chance in their pasturage, and whole species 

 are dying out. There is a high demand in the mar- 

 ket for these mountain-fed lambs, but it seems to me 

 we are paying too high a price for the delicacy 

 with the extinction of some of our rarest flowers. 

 Of course, with no verdure on the slopes, the earth 

 will be washed away soon, and only bare rocks 

 remain, and then there will be no pasturage to en- 

 courage the entrance of the sheep bands. Then, 

 bountiful Nature will again play a free hand, and 

 by toiling for years, build up a new soil and again 

 secure plant life. Will the same species we have 

 been enjoying again flourish on those Sierran slopes, 

 or will their places be usurped by those hardier 



