STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 283 



or will, in its entire results, be profitable to the owner. Under favorable 

 circumstances, the year's gains may be satisfactory; but, should a season 

 of drought, such as occurred in eighteen hundred and sixty-four, take 

 place, the diffieulty of subsisting so man}" animals in a restricted district 

 must be attended with great losses from starvation, while even in the 

 most favorable seasons epidemics are liable to break out in large herds, 

 and from an inability to treat individual animals for the infection before 

 it becomes wide spread, the entire flock inay be decimated. It would be 

 a better polic}* for the farmers of the State to adopt a more diversified 

 farming, for among a greater division of interests wool growing could 

 be made exceedingl}- profitable. 



ALL FARMERS SHOULD BE SHEEP GROWERS. 



There are many reasons why every farmer would find it profitable to 

 keep a small flock of fine wool sheep on a farm where grain is the prin- 

 cipaj crop. By raising his own mutton, a large saving is made in the 

 butcher's bill ; the sale of the wool will bring re^dy mone}^ just before 

 harvest, Avhen it is most needed to conduct the farming operations with 

 celerity and economy. Nor are these the greatest benefits to accrue from 

 a sj'Stem of mixed farming, in which sheep raising has its appropriate 

 share. Sheep are the best scavengers which can be put on a field after 

 the grain is cut, to clear the land of weeds, while their droppings are a 

 far better fertilizer than the debris of stubble and litter they consume, 

 whi(;h otherwise would have to be ploughed under to decompose. In a 

 countr}' like California, where the noxious herbage tends to a rapid usur- 

 pation of the soil, the services of sheep are invaluable to keep the land 

 from, being overrun b}' poisonous weeds. 



When sheep husbandrj^ shall become, in the Pacific States, a part of 

 everj' farmer's operations, we may look for a much higher standard in 

 the grade of wools tbere produced, as it will be in the power of the small 

 herdsmen to cull out the worthless or inferior animals, and to retain, for 

 breeding purposes and the fleece, only such as are of superior quality. 

 It must not be inferred, however, that the large herdsmen are indiffei'- 

 ent in the matter of breeding; they are constantly improving their 

 flocks. In no wool growing country is there, probably, more expense 

 and painstaking incurred in the attempt to obtain animals of the best 

 points for breeders, both male and female, thanjn California; but this 

 must necessarily be limited to such animals as are kept for special breed- 

 ing, as, where flocks number tens of thousands, the matter of pairing the 

 male and female so as to secure an improved offspring, is, in a great 

 measure, impossible. 



SHEEP STARVATION IN THE PACIFIC STATES. 



With a cool, healthful climate throughout the districts lying between 

 the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys and the shore of the Pacific 

 Ocean, there is no season of the year throughout this vast sheepwalk 

 when animals are liable to receive injury, either from an excess of heat 

 or cold, nor are winter rains so severe as to cause the death of the most 

 delicate, where ample supplies of forage are stored, so as to give a small 

 feed of hay during the short season between the destruction of the old 

 grass by the rains, and the appearance of the new. Favorable as this 

 appears to be for the prosecution of sheep husbandry, j-et the losses 

 throughout this region during the year eighteen hundred and sixtj^-four 



