1903 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



295 



to the acre, although it frequently runs industry requires the investment of 



as high as fourteen or fifteen hun- large capital, gives employment to a 



dred. The finest leaf brings as high small army of colored people, and has 



as $6 a pound, although the average is become a strong factor in the material 



probably not more than $3.50. This development of Gadsden county. 



THE RANGE HOG AS A FOREST PROBLEM 



BY 



CHARLES H. SHINN, 



HEAD RANGER, SIERRA FOREST RESERVE. 



IN the lower portions of the California 

 Sierras the officers engaged in car- 

 ing for and protecting the forest reserves 

 find that droves of half-wild hogs have 

 often been permitted to run at large, 

 more particularly in districts where 

 many oak trees grOvV. These hogs 

 generally belong to poor settlers who 

 live within the reserves, or who have 

 their homes just outside a reserve, in 

 some small village, either on deeded 

 land or as holders of tracts to which 

 they have not yet perfected titles. 

 Even the richest settler is not apt to 

 own more than a hundred "porkers," 

 and usually the droves consist of from 

 twenty to fifty. 



The true ' ' range hog ' ' is remarkably 

 well adapted to his environment. He is 

 a long, lean, tough, strong, fierce, and 

 rough-coated animal, a lineal descendant 

 of the half-wild ' ' razor-back ' ' of west- 

 ern and southwestern literature ; but in 

 coming up from the swamps and prairies 

 to the highlands of the Sierras he has 

 acquired even greater size and fighting 

 ability. The solitary old ' ' tuskers ' ' 

 become very savage and picturesque 

 creatures, fit prey for the long boar- 

 spear of any huntsman, and capable of 

 fighting off or destroying almost any 

 number of dogs. 



Although the regulations bar hogs 

 from these reserves, the swiftness and 

 cunning of the animals is so great, and 

 they are all so much at home in the 

 woods, that it is a difficult matter to fol- 

 low them up or to keep them out. They 

 will dodge into the thick, thorny shrubs 

 where neither man nor horse can follow 



and where dogs dare not attack them, 

 or they will back up between rocks and 

 into gullies, show fight, and charge 

 their pursuers. A mother with her five 

 or six spotted pigs will usually attack 

 anything in sight ; and she has need to 

 be fierce, as the forest shelters many 

 coyotes and mountain lions and an oc- 

 casional lynx. 



None of the Sierra forests contains a 

 pure stand of oak, but large areas of it 

 on the western slopes in the reserves 

 below 5,000 feet elevation contain many 

 species of oak, both evergreen and de- 

 ciduous. The principal species are the 

 Highland Live Oak (Querais wisli- 

 zeni) and the California White Oak 

 ( Quercus lobata ) . These oaks are mixed 

 with pines ; first the Gray Pine (Pinus 

 sabiniana) , the nearly worthless " Dig- 

 ger Pine ' ' of the foothills ; then higher 

 up the Bull Pine (Finns ponderosa) . 

 Still further up the Digger Pine disap- 

 pears and the superb Sugar Pine (Pinus 

 lambertiana) comes in. But the hog 

 problem is almost altogether one of the 

 thousand feet between the 2,500 and the 

 3,500 foot levels along the western 

 townships of the California reserves, 

 where the forest consists of oaks, Dig- 

 ger Pine, and Bull Pine. 



The injury done by the range hogs in 

 this belt of country is partly to seed- 

 ling trees and partly to the pasturage. 

 When I came to this (the Sierra Re- 

 serve) last November, I observed large 

 areas of soft, rich soil so deeply up- 

 rooted that it looked as if it had been 

 freshly spaded. This had been done by 

 bands of range hogs in search of roots 



