450 Teansactions op the 



be able to decide for himself whether or not his circumstances are such 

 that he can advantageously undertake sheep raising at all, and if aye, 

 then to what extent. But in this place some general hints only can be 

 thrown out. I have said that increase of lambs is at the foundation of 

 success. Proper care and labor expended during the lambing season is 

 the warrant of this increase. To bestow these some knowledge of sheep 

 nature is requisite. This knowledge is soon acquired through observa- 

 tion by one whose heart is, even in small measure, in the work; who 

 can come to feel a personal interest in his sheep; but unless one be con- 

 scious that he has it in him to take this interest and to acquire this 

 knowledge, he will never make much of a sheep man. 



After this consideration, the first will be — range. The natural sheep 

 ranges of California — those where the business can be best undertaken 

 as a specialty — are the foothills both of the Sierra Nevada and the Coast 

 Eanges, and those parts of the plains that are beyond the reach of a 

 profitable market for grain growing. Except for raising thoroughbreds, 

 valuable grain land cannot be profitably ranged to sheep. These con- 

 siderations practically exclude the business from many farms which 

 have no hill range. It is true that every farmer can profitably raise his 

 own meat. Where Summer fallowing is done the fallow always brings 

 more or less "foul" stuff, that makes good feed for sheep — which, in 

 turn, leave the land in all the better condition for grain by cropping 

 down the foul stuff, preventing its seeding, besides converting it all into 

 manure. But the most profitable way of feeding off this crop is to buy 

 the necessary number of lambs from some sheep breeder, let them work 

 off the fallow, the stubble, and everything else on the farm, till it is 

 clean, then turn them over to the butcher. A first class crop of good 

 weeds is wasted every year in California for lack of feeding down in 

 this way. But this is not sheep breeding. It is true there are farms on 

 which the amount of land Summer fallowed is so large that it will carry 

 a band of several hundred sheep, which, by working during the odd 

 whiles on young volunteer and the like, can get good picking the year 

 round. Under such circumstances it may pay to raise lambs instead of 

 buying them. 1 may remark, too, that many a farmer sells off a lot of 

 indifferent hay at a price that really leaves him nothing over the cost of 

 marketing it, when it happens that he might buy a band of lambs and 

 get a good advance by turning the hay into mutton. But this is allied 

 more nearly to the side subjects of " stall feeding," or "soiling" — which 

 I do not propose to discuss. And, again-, much good meadow land — too 

 wet and cold for regular grain growing — would bring on a .band of 

 lambs well, that pays but a trifling rent as Summer range for cattle. 

 All these, however, are still not sheep breeding; and I may say in gen- 

 eral that, within the area of profitable grain growing, a man is not ex- 

 pected to go into this business with success unless he has some hill 

 range 8 that will not pay to plow. Nor, I may add here, will it pay to 

 make feed — not even to cut wild hay, on which to keep and breed sheep — 

 except (in a measure) for thoroughbreds and other high grades. 



There used to be another condition attending the business which is 

 fast disappearing — that of ranging sheep on Government land; some- 

 times the range was secured by securing the water; sometimes neigh- 

 bors merely scrambled for what each could get. Once, indeed, this was 

 the general case, and the exception was when a man owned his range; 

 but now, he generally has to own it, and too often fence it, too, if he 

 would have much good of it. There are large breeders now who range 

 their bands during the Summer on the high mountain pastures, and come 



