148 TRANSACTIONS OP THE 



grasses being consumed before tbe seed ripens, it follows tbat the next 

 year's growth of grass is less in quantity, while the crop of weeds would 

 be greater in proportionate ratio as it obtained the mastery of the field. 

 There are large districts once covered with a heavy growth of nutritious 

 grasses now entirely the receptacle of repulsive and useless weeds, owing 

 entirely to this destructive system of grazing. 



It is time that our farmers should turn their attention more lai'gely to the 

 growing of grasses or grains for hay. Indeed, these hideous wastes of nox- 

 ious weeds should be plowed under to rot in the summer fallow, and early 

 in the fall the wild oat should be thickly seeded and harrowed upon their 

 decaying, fertilizing debris. One crop of this kind will redeem the foulest 

 piece of land so that it will continue to be a valuable pasture for years 

 afterwards. This, indeed, is what must be done if our grain farmers de- 

 sire also to continue stock raising as a part of their business. In order 

 to raise stock with profit or satisfaction under the changing condition of 

 land proprietorship in this State, it becomes necessary to cultivate hay 

 crops and store for winter use. 



It is no unusual thing to witness, in many districts of the State where 

 stock and grain growing are both conducted, farmers burning up huge 

 piles of straw in the fields where the thresher left it, seemingly in great 

 haste lest the long-deferred rains should overtake them before the lurid 

 flames should have lapped it up in the very sight of lowing herds which 

 instinctively snuff gaunt famine in the rising storm. Later in the season 

 the barren pastures on such a straw-burner's domain will be sprinkled 

 with the carcasses of his herds, while his corral fences will be covered 

 with hides as evidences of thoughtless, wanton, shiftless waste. Such a 

 farmer Avill complain that the season has been hard on stock, and grum- 

 bingly pocket a meagre dividend obtained from the sale of hides, minus 

 the accompaniment of tallow. It is the constant boast of our Anglo- 

 American population that they are far in advance of the native Califor- 

 nians in every branch of industry. So far as this apjfiies to the subsis- 

 tence of stock, this boast is not borne out by facts. The Californian, if 

 he did not cut and store hay for winter use, at all events reserved a por- 

 tion of his pastures for winter grazing, while the improvident American, 

 with rare exceptions, does neither. It is no extravagant assertion to 

 state that the stock throughout the State which is left to obtain its sub- 

 sistence from the range alone during the winter suffers a loss of not less 

 than one third of its aggregate weight by shrinkage alone, to say nothing 

 of the vast numbers which perish from exposure and starvation. The 

 adage of "a feast or a famine" applies with significant force to stock 

 growing as at present generally conducted in California. A few years 

 since the desire to own land and raise stock very nearly became a mania 

 with all classes of our people. Indeed, the capitalist, professional man, 

 and laborer with small means, were nearly as much beside themselves in 

 their desire to own lands and herds as they are now to enumerate, their 

 figure columns of " feet." 



Probably no one great interest in the State kept up so long to so 

 highly a remunerating basis as stock raising. This was owing to the 

 reason that the great bands of Spanish cattle were driven to remote and 

 inaccessible places by the rapid substitution of grain farming in the 

 middle districts, which thus usurped the choicest ranges nearest to the 

 centres of population. Stock growing, however, did not cease in these 

 districts — it was only changed by the substitution of improved breeds 

 in small but numerous herds. The increase of these choice breeds were 

 withheld for years from sale to the butcher, as they were most valuable 



