42 Sierra Club Bulletin. 



creeks that used to harbor ferns and moss? The very 

 home established by the owner of the holding has not 

 command of sufficient water to support his cattle after 

 the first of July, and that on more than one thousand 

 acres. 



There is system in all of this, but does it devolve to 

 the good of the country? Will not the very prince of 

 this domain find some day that his sleek band of cattle, 

 as it passes bellowing to the subalpine range, can no 

 longer compete with the stock that goes valleyward to 

 feed on alfalfa farms? It is an absolute fact that the 

 very man who drives a band of from one hundred and 

 fifty to two hundred and fifty head of stock to the moun- 

 tains has, at times of every year, not a drop of milk for 

 his table. Gradually will he find that the profits of his 

 enterprise decline. Like the roving and robbing gravel- 

 miner, he lives for the time being in affluence, and when 

 his claim no longer " pans out," he too will strike out for 

 new ground; he too will realize that nature forbids the 

 harvesting where no sowing has taken place; and as he 

 sees his very poverty in the vastness of his lands, he will 

 be ready to make way for those destined to replace Kim. 

 Looking to lands of older civilization, and knowing the 

 present conditions here, we can predict with positiveness 

 who those parties will be. One shall be a new home-^ 

 seeker, who once again looks for the most promising 

 spots, and will be satisfied to cultivate his small area 

 with thoroughness with toil and tool, neither knowing 

 firebrand nor powder. The other, the holder of the 

 rough ground of the wide open ranges, will be the com- 

 munity of interests represented in the government, local 

 or federal, the very one that never should have been dis- 



