, 1899-10-26

III Dlutt navy ottu tuhtl UP "
the purpose of making ties.
In his letter Senator Warren re-
news his former endeavor to show
how beneficial the pasturage of
sheep in the timber is in the way
of preventing fires. AS he has
said before they consume grass
AND VEGETATION. If they
ed nothing but grass there would
be no objection, but as a man who
had been in the Slavery country
during the summer said to me the
other day: "The quaking asp
groves that surround the places
where there used to be springs
are utterly bare as high as a sheep
cin reach and no second growth is
possible because the sheep devour
it as oon as it appears. And
wherever a fire has destroyed the
growing timber it is impossible
for a second growth even of cpnif
erOus or pine timber to come in its
place. OF course the slieepd do not
eat large trees-that is onsense-
but when the young and tender
seedlings start up, they tramp out
with their feet whatever they do
not eat. Hundreds of springs are
dried up now and where there used
to be little swamps you can now
drive a loaded wagon over hard
dusty ground" He merely repeat
ed to me what / had been told by
n dozen others.
Perhaps it will not be amiss to
quote from an article in the Over
land Monthly, the leading maya
zine of the Pacific coast, on the
National Parks and Reserves of
California. "Then the vast herds
of sheep hat now eat off the grass
dnd destroy the .young shoots OF
trees and leave a desert in their
wake, could be kept out. These
hordes of sheep gone, a territory
could be reclaimed which has till
now gone to waste. y = y Land
over which they pass is said to be
~'sheeped' a descriptive word coin
ing itself to express the entire des-
uction left in their path"
If Senator Warren places so
much confidence in sheep and
sheepherders for preventing fires
how does he explain the fact that
the worst and most devasting for
est fires in these mountains last
year were where sheep had ranged
all the season? He has advocated
allowing contractors to cut wide
swaths through the forests as a
means of hindering forest fires.
Now if they we're so cut parts of
them would spring mp again with
"A second growth of timber of one
kind or another. In order to be
thorough in removing the timber
entirely it would be necessary to
drive sheep over the lanes a few
times each year. After that they
would be bare enough to suit any
one. But, again, the men who
fought timber fires tell me that
with strong wind such as usually
prevails in the mountains when
there is a fire, the burning cinders
are often carried n quarter of IA
mile and a half IA mile at a time.
The idea of lanes or swaths" to
be cut through the timber by con
tractors would seem only a quick
er method of destroying a consid-
cradle part of the timber that it
is our utmost interest to
Now perhaps some small mind
ed genius will see politics in this.
This question of forest reserves
for the protection of water supply
is II in which political lines were
never yet been drawn. Nor should
they ever be. Those who have
the interest of their state and
country at heart have voted and
worked for them whether they
were Democrats or Republicans.
while all the time a percentage of
either party has fought them or
delayed action ON them in behalf
Of private interests.
All that it is necessary for us to
do in order to insure the gradual
but sure determination of our for