December 16, 1896.] 



Garden and Forest. 



503 



neighbors in usefulness as well as beauty, and second only 

 to the Sequoias in size. Too much can never be said of 

 the varied and picturesque individuality of this beautiful 

 tree, which Douglas, upon discovering it in 1826, declared 

 to be "the most princely of the genus ; perhaps, even the 

 grandest specimen of vegetation known." Its most 

 striking characteristic is in its slender, straggling branches 

 thrown out irregularly from the upper trunk and termi- 

 nated by a single, long, heavy cone pendent from the tip, 

 shooting out like a skyrocket just ready to burst. 



On account of the lack of transportation facilities, 

 the amount of lumbering so far done in these mountains i.s 

 small, and it seems that forest fires of any great extent 

 have not ravaged the forests here for many years, though 

 the blackened bark of the older trees testifies plainly as to 

 the manner in which the former undergrowth was done 

 away with. But, while fortunate in these respects, this has 

 been the most thoroughly overrun with sheep of any sec- 

 tion of the Sierra, over 200,000 head being driven annually 

 to the headwaters of the Kern and Tule rivers. When the 

 sheep were first brought in here, some thirty years ago, 

 there was a dense undergrowth of young trees, grass and 

 shrubs, while in the mountain meadows the feed was as 

 high as a horse's back, say the old mountaineers. To-day 

 upon the Upper Kern and Little Kern there are miles after 

 miles of country left utterly bare ; from the bole of one 

 great conifer to another there is scarcely even a pine- 

 needle to cover the coarse, gray, granite sand. To start a 

 forest fire would be absolutely impossible ; there is nothing 

 left to burn. Like the Roman general who made the 

 enemy's country a desert and called it " peace," the sheep- 

 men now claim that the sheep benefit the forests by keep- 

 ing down the undergrowth, thereby bringing security from 

 forest fires. Others say that inasmuch as there will be 

 nothing left to feed upon in a few years more, the sheep 

 will work their own expulsion. 



In the late spring, before the arrival of the sheep, many 

 places can be seen where the young Pines are covering the 

 ground like grass on a lawn, and where squirrels have 

 " cached " their winter supply of seeds little tufts of dozens 

 of tiny trees spring up. A few weeks later not a sign of a 

 tree is to be found, and little holes show where the seed- 

 beds of the squirrels have been dug up by the feet of the 

 sheep to obtain the last remnants of the kernels. 



On the first establishment of the park and its patrolling 

 by the cavalry there was a feeling of bitter resentment 

 against the new policy by all connected, even indirectly, 

 with the sheep industry. Some herders, aware of the ab- 

 sence of a legal penalty for trespassing, thought well to 

 ignore the presence of the soldiers, and allowed their sheep 

 to graze within the park in spite of warning. They dis- 

 covered their mistake when, after being escorted a couple 

 of days' journey across the park, they were ejected with 

 the admonition not to be caught again within it, their 

 sheep, meantime, having been driven out at the nearest 

 point on the boundary to roam at liberty over the moun- 

 tains until their owners had made their way back around 

 the borders and gathered together the remnant. At present, 

 however, the protection of the forests is acquiesced in 

 without comment, and the further extension of the pro- 

 tected area is looked upon by the sheep owners as a thing 

 to be expected at any time, and already taken into account 

 in their plans for the future. A year or two ago notices 

 were posted forbidding the pasturing of sheep in the reserve, 

 and, though most of them were at once torn down, there 

 was some disposition to obey them by many of the Ameri- 

 can owners, but, as no effort was made by the Government 

 to enforce the regulation, it soon became a dead letter. In 

 fact, it is probable that the closing of the entire reserve 

 would be looked upon favorably by a large part of the 

 American sheep-men, partly under the expectation that the 

 foreigners owning no land would thereby be forced out of 

 the business, and partly, no doubt, in the case of those 

 owning patented lands within the boundaries of the 

 reserve, with the thought that the Government could not 



in justice forbid them access to property it had already 

 sold to them, nor without great expense in the way of 

 fencing or police could it enforce a strict observance of the 

 boundaries of the land sold. The large amount of this 

 land disposed of by the Government before the formation 

 of the reserve, and now within its limits, will be one of the 

 most difficult problems to solve in any action hereafter to 

 be taken for the protection of these forests. 



A great part of the sheep pastured on the public lands 

 belong to foreigners, chiefly French and Spanish, of Pro- 

 vencal or Basque origin, who, owning no land and paying 

 no taxes, are most thoroughly despised by their American 

 neighbors. They are, nevertheless, an industrious, frugal 

 and hardy race, willing for the sake of a mere subsistence 

 to face dangers and hardships which few Americans would 

 care to endure for a like recompense. Accustomed from 

 childhood and through generations of ancestors to lead 

 their flocks every summer into the upper Alps and Pyre- 

 nees, they penetrate every nook and corner of the moun- 

 tains where feed is to be found, afew days' pasturage being 

 a sufficient inducement for them to take their charges over 

 paths difficult and dangerous even for men, where the sure- 

 footed donkeys with their supplies may, perhaps, have to 

 be let down or pulled up by ropes, and where the sheep 

 can only be driven by the most expert management and 

 knowledge of their habits. The most adventurous moun- 

 tain climbers of the Sierra Club, in their explorations of the 

 fastnesses of the high Sierra, find few spots so remote or 

 inaccessible as not to show traces of their having been 

 already visited by these indefatigable peasants. 



Aside from these few exceptions then, it may be said that 

 the sentiment of the people of the district is now almost 

 unanimous in favor of increased Government control. The 

 inhabitants of the valleys below, who use these waters for 

 irrigation, understand the necessity of preserving the forest- 

 cover on the mountains, and as great numbers of them 

 come up toward the sources of the stream each summer 

 to escape the intense leat of the plains, they become 

 acquainted with the conditions and the denudation at 

 present prevailing. The ice has been broken. An exam- 

 ple has been placed before them in the protected park, 

 where the improved appearance of vegetation is apparent 

 to the most inattentive traveler as soon as he passes the 

 boundary. Public feeling seems to be ready for another 

 step. The first should certainly be to enlarge the area 

 from which trespassers are excluded, which could be done 

 by the Executive without the necessity of legislative action. 

 Captain Parker, acting superintendent of the park, says, in 

 his report for 1894 : 



I respectfully renew my recommendations of last year on 

 the subject of extending the park so as to take in that portion 

 of the forest reserve lying east of Sequoia and General Grant 

 parks. This would include a most picturesque and grand 

 portion of the Kings River Cafion, and also the Kern River 

 country, a section rich in scenic grandeur and beauty, which 

 is visited eachyear by great numbers of tourists. This exten- 

 sion would make possible the employment of troops, and thus 

 rid the country of sheep, a result which seems impossible at 

 present to hope for in any other way. It would take in the 

 source of theSouth Fork of the Kings River, of the Kern River, 

 and includes more of the sources of the Kaweah River than 

 does the park as at present laid out. It would simplify the 

 sheep question by interposing to the migrating sheep herds a 

 barrier stretching entirely across the mountain country, thus 

 restricting their operations. It would be hailed with delight 

 by the tourists, fishermen and sportsmen, who now find this 

 country barren, desolate and devoid of feed for their riding 

 and pack animals. Such an extension has its precedent in the 

 enlargement of the Yellowstone Parle, April 14th. iS<>l, an 

 order of the President including therein .1 portion oi theforest 

 reserve adjoining. 



As to the further future with respect to some thorough 

 system of forestry practice for this reason, it can be 

 that, thanks to the initiative of a t\i\v far-seeing men, with 

 the aid of Garden and Forest and some other journals, the 

 subject is no longer a mere theme for academic discussion, 

 as it was until of late, but is receiving local attention and 



