2l8 



BURNING OF PASTURE LANDS 



[the Indians] take the pasturage from cattle [buffaloes] by burn- 

 ing, that necessity may drive them to seek in such places as it is 

 wished they would go." Bell,' Plummer,' and others ascribe to 

 fires the treelessness and the poor vegetation of certain localities 

 of the Great Plains region and the Middle States. Bonneville^ 

 points out that the hunters had the greatest difficulty in starting 



(Forest Senice.) 



Fig. 72. — the FIRE-SWEPT AREA IS LEFT PRACTICALLY DEVOID OF PLANT 

 AND ANIMAL LIFE. 



Nature cannot rerover in centuries the splendor and the money value so soon destroyed. 



fires on the meadows along the Platte River because of the sparse- 

 ness and short stature of the grass. It is recorded of the abo- 

 rigines in various parts of the West that they kept vast tracts of 

 forest lands denuded of timber as a result of setting fires for 

 hunting. White hunters and trappers continued the practice of 

 setting fires. Later the influx of settlers and the widespread 

 custom of burning over land to get rid of timber, brush, or other 



^ "History of California," Vol. I, p. 41, 1758. 



2 Plummer, Fred G., "Forest Fires." U. S. Dept. of Agr., Forest Service, Bui. 

 117, p. 8, 1912. 



3 Irving, Washington, "Adventures of Captain Bonneville," Pawnee Edition, 

 Vol. I, p. 45 



