STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 147 



The practice of the old Californians had been to graze their herds in the 

 valleys during one season, and then drive them to the reserved pastur- 

 age of the hills when the supply in the valleys gave out, thus always, 

 excepting in seasons of unusual drought, having for their stock an 

 abundance of food In this manner they were enabled to keep their 

 herds in fair condition through the inclement season of winter, and 

 avoid any considerable loss by sheer starvation. It was supposed that 

 on the advent of the American farmer that he would introduce improved 

 measures in stock growing, as well as in cereal agriculture. The Ameri- 

 can method, however, of fencing land, and using the best for grain, has 

 entirely done awaj r with the custom of reserved ranges as considered 

 imperative by the old Californians, and the result is that nearly all of the 

 stock throughout the middle and northern parts of the State which is not 

 fed with hay or straw, stored for the purpose, suffers a very severe 

 shrinkage in weight during the winter months, as the pastures having 

 been fed down close in the summer, there is little left on them to subsist 

 animal life during the winter. 



The grasses left standing in the field after ripening retain all of their 

 nourishing properties so long as the weather remains dry; but the first 

 rain dissolves the secretions of gluten, of which they become largely com- 

 posed — maturing as they do in a season which is rainless, but subject to 

 nights which deposit what are termed honey dews. The first rain dis- 

 solves this honey dew gluten, and a rapid fermentation and decomposi- 

 tion of the forage standing in the field is the result. Where there is an 

 abundance of this grass, however, it becomes a protection to the young 

 blades which immediately spring up underneath, and the stock, by mix- 

 ing these two kinds of food, will get on tolerably well ; but where forced 

 to subsist mainly on the young, unnutritious grasses, they are affected 

 with the scours, and become weak, and in poor condition to meet the 

 storms of rain and cold winds which find them shelterless in California, 

 except in some friendly gulch in the hills or ravines of the plains. 



It seems strange that so many stock growers will still persist in forcing 

 their herds to pick up a precarious subsistence and encounter the chilling, 

 cold rain storms, when a small outlay would provide shelter, and the 

 mowing of a few tons of hay would cany them through the only season 

 in which they suffer by reason of exposure to the elements without a 

 supply of nutritious food. What a sad commentary on the spirit of 

 American progression and innovation, for stock raisers to say that they 

 are not disposed to store forage to feed their stock in the winter, simply 

 because the old Californians did riot do it. In everything else in Califor- 

 nia the Anglo-American is swift with innovation, and even in the matter 

 of stock grazing we find him innovating so far upon the ancient custom 

 as to rob the herds of the richest grazing districts by plowing them up 

 for grain fields. Probably the close-fisted modern herdsman calculates 

 that he is much smarter than those he has supplanted, because he can 

 produce grain in addition to an equal number of animals on the same 

 area of land. Glancing at the peculiarities of climate, it is seen that our 

 grasses, by necessity, are onlyannuals, as the dry season is so long that 

 vegetable life is extinguished even in the roots of the grasses. Hence it 

 follows that our pastures must have an annual re-seeding. Whence shall 

 be supplied this seed ? It has been shown that the modern system of 

 close feeding uses up the grass before it can have ripened and resown the 

 pasture. Among natural as well as cultivated grasses there will be 

 mingled more or less of noxious weeds which are rejected by the stock 

 as long as a spear of palatable grass can be found. Now, the valuable 



