296 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



June 



RANGE HOGS IN MIXED FOREST OF OAK AND PINE, SIERRA FOREST RESERVE, CALIFORNIA. 



of perennial grasses and of some of our 

 small but nutritious native bulbs, such 

 as the Brodiceas and the Calochorti. The 

 rooting was also deep under many oaks 

 and pines, but at this season, just after 

 the early rains, it was most noticeable 

 in the rich open ' ' flats ' ' and hol- 

 lows within the reserve. I examined 

 carefully one tract of eighty acres and 

 the following comparative areas were 

 found : 



Acres 



Area in fairly good young forest 36 



Area in poor and fire-injured forest 18 



Area in heavy growth of shrubs 20 



Area in scant pasturage and rocky ridges. . 30 

 Area in good pasturage and rich hollows. . 9 



A drove of not more than thirty hogs 

 had deeply broken the sod on nearly 

 all of the open spaces, and especially 

 over the nine acres of richer soil, so 

 that a fair estimate of their work would 

 be forty-five acres of this one tract ex- 

 amined. By January most of this ground 

 had been rooted over again. In Feb- 

 ruary the drove was taken away, but 

 now, in April, the uprooted places are 

 not grass-grown, but weedy, and the 

 pasturage is undoubtedly much injured. 



The pioneers claim that young pine 



groves frequently spring up where range 

 hogs have been allowed to work at will, 

 as they root up the close mat of pine 

 needles and give the seed a chance to 

 start. But wherever, in November, De- 

 cember, and January the fresh rooting 

 of these animals had taken place under 

 the pine trees on the eighty acres before 

 alluded to, I found that the seedlings 

 had been entirely destroyed. It seems 

 evident that the burning of the pine 

 needles with the first rains will furnish 

 a better chance for reproduction than 

 any hap-hazard dependence upon range 

 hogs. 



Many cattle owners recognize the in- 

 jury done to perennial grasses by bands 

 of hogs. These grasses were once very 

 abundant, and formed a close mat over 

 large areas; but overstocking has in 

 many places made their growth very 

 " bunchy," under which circumstances 

 the injury done by the hogs is especially 

 manifest. The annual grasses are eaten 

 off, but seldom uprooted. 



As far as the settlers themselves are 

 concerned, the habit of turning out their 

 hogs has been in most cases unprofitable 

 and even burdensome. The hogs are 



