THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



393 



of expenditures would soon become estab- 

 lished. This would practically dispose of 

 the range question, as leases could be 

 made for terms of years, and there would 

 be then no conflict of right." 



Nothing could more forcibly illustrate 

 the absolute necessity for the inauguration 

 of such a leasing system as above advo- 

 cated by Secretary Wilson, nor the utter 

 inadequacy of the present land system in 

 the arid region, than a recent Cheyenne 

 (Wyo.) dispatch, in which it is stated that 

 open war is threatened on Wyoming 

 ranges. The most strained relations exist 

 between cattlemen and sheepmen. "Es- 

 pecially is this true," the dispatch says, 

 "in Converse and Carbon counties. Near 

 Saratoga, masked cattlemen forcibly re- 

 moved the sheep from certain mountain 

 ranges, and fear is felt that open war will 

 soon break out. Between illegal fencing 

 and false pretense, homesteading, with 

 corralling of water rights, the general wel- 

 fare of the bona-fide stockman is being 

 greatly damaged.'' 



This dispatch shows the serious condi- 

 tion which exists to a more or less extent 

 all over the West through the overcrowd- 

 ing of ranges, and emphasizes the state- 

 ments that it is time and past time for the 

 enactment of laws which shall provide 

 equitable rights for legitimate stock raisers 

 and do away with the dangerous contro- 

 versies which now exist in every grazing 

 section. 



BIG TREES OF CALIFORNIA. 

 It seems like a desecration, but unless 

 prompt measures are taken either by Cali- 

 fornia or the United States the great Cala- 

 veras big tree grove will soon disappear at 

 the hands of the woodman and lumberman. 

 Robert Whsteside of Duluth is the prospec- 

 tive tree vandal, having an option on the 

 big forest. He has no intention to utilize 

 its scenic beauties; he is merely figuring 

 how much lumber the gigantic sequoias 

 will make and how much profit will accrue 

 to him from the purchase of a forest nature 

 has spent centuries in making the most 



unique to be found anywhere upon the 

 globe. The San Francisco Chronicle gives 

 this description of this magnificent forest 

 and wonderland, and tells what steps are 

 being taken in California to prevent such 

 an outrage as the destruction of these won- 

 ders of nature: 



The Calaveras big tree grove is sixteen 

 miles from Murphy's, near the Stanislaus 

 river, north of Stockton, and is at an ele- 

 vation of 4,759 feet above San Francisco 

 bay.. Within an area of 3,200 by 700 feet 

 there are ninety-three mammoth sequoia 

 gigantea and more than 100 mammoth 

 sugar and yellow pines. Thirty-one of the 

 sequoias range from 230 to 325 feet in 

 height and measure from thirty-one to 

 sixty-one feet in circumference six feet 

 from the ground. What these heights 

 mean may be imagined from the fact that 

 the Glaus Spreckels building is 310 feet 

 high to the base of the flagpole. The fa- 

 mous Keystone State and Gen. Jackson, 

 each 325 feet high; the Mother of the For- 

 est, 320 feet high and sixty-one feet in 

 circumference; Daniel Webster, Richard 

 Codder, Starr King, Henry "Clay, Bay 

 State, Abraham Lincoln, Uncle Sam,U. S. 

 Grant, George Washington, Henry Ward 

 Beecher, Florence Nightengale and other 

 stately forest giants thousands of years 

 old and known to tourists all over the 

 world are to goto the sawmill at the trifling 

 rate of less than $26 an acre for timber and 

 land together. At this rate these mighty 

 forest sentinels are being bought up at 

 about $5 apieoe, for there are several of 

 them to the acre. 



Now that these trees, the like of which 

 exist in no other part of the world but 

 California, are about to be felled, tardy 

 public interest is being aroused. The 

 Sierra Club and the San Joaquin Valley 

 Commercial Club, the Water and Forestry 

 Association, the Pioneer Club, the Cali- 

 fornia Club and both universities are con- 

 sidering methods of preventing the whole- 

 sale vandalism. Two courses are open. 

 Money enough may be raised to pay Robert 

 Whiteside the lumber value of the whole 



