136 



TRANSACTIONS OP THE 



of fabrics, and scarcety worth the cost of sacking and transporting to 

 market. Yet it is from this basis that our stocks of the present day 

 have mainly sprung, and we owe to it the demonstration of the suita- 

 bility of our climate and grasses for the raising and keeping of the supe- 

 rior classes to which we are now approaching. 



During the years eighteen hundred and lifty-two, eighteen hundred 

 and fifty-three, and eighteen hundred and fifty-four, quite a number of 

 Missouri, and a few Ohio sheep, were driven across the plains; and toward 

 the latter of those }'ears some fine importations of Australian sheep 

 were received, all of which found ready sale at remunerative prices. 

 Most sheep raisers who have been long in the business can well remem- 

 ber when the possession of a very ordinary American ram was consid- 

 ered a most fortunate thing, and half-breeds, (i. e., crosses of American 

 rams on the Mexican ewes,) were eagerly sought for. 



The immense increase of sheep raised in the .State, and the continual 

 introduction of immense droves from New Mexico, very shortly brought 

 the stock of mutton sheep fully up to the demand from the butchers, and 

 threatened at no distant time to be so largely in excess as to reduce 

 prices far below the cost of production. As early as the year eighteen 

 hundred and fifty-four, some of our most enterprising sheep raisers an- 

 ticipated this result, and believing that a climate and range on which 

 the poorer breeds seemed to thrive so well must answer equally as well 

 for the higher classes of wool producing sheep, and that sheep could be 

 raised here for the fleece alone, set about the importation of the thor- 

 oughbred merino rams of Vermont and New York. To Messrs. Curtis 

 & McConnell, of Sacramento County, belongs the credit of the first im- 

 portation of the Vermont, or generally designated Spanish merino. 

 Both these gentlemen are now dead, but they lived to see and reap the 

 fruits of their foresight. Other importations of both French and Spanish 

 merino stocks rapidly followed, as also of Cotswold, Leicester, and South- 

 downs. Large numbers of Australian rams and ewes were brought in, 

 and all found ready sale at extreme prices. Before the year eighteen 

 hundred and sixty, there was scarcely a flock in the State that had not 

 some infusion of improved blood from these importations, and the char- 

 acter of California wools began to exhibit a percentage of improvement 

 scarcely less than the increase in quantity, until at the present time an 

 unmixed flock of native sheep is by far more rarely met than were im- 

 proved flocks in the year eighteen hundred and fifty-six. 



A glance at our estimated wool clip for the past ten years will show 

 the rapid increase, and the important position already attained, viz : 



ESTIMATED PRODUCT OF WOOL IN POUNDS. 



In eighteen hundred and fifty, the census reported our wool product 

 at about five thousand pounds; but it was not until eighteen hundred 

 and fifty-four that it attained sufficient magnitude to obtain notice in the 

 list of exports. That year we shipped one thousand one hundred and 

 twenty-seven bales. The following table shows the extent in bales of 

 our exports for each year since, viz : 



