492 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 
losing in a single dry year all the increase of a previous succession of 
favorable ones, has gone far toward the introduction of a safer system, 
in which the hardy and nutritious alfalfa serves to carry reduced numbers 
of stock of correspondingly higher guality safely through the dry months. 
In few States, probably, is the value of improved breeds more highly 
appreciated than in California; and nowhere, probably, can the best 
strains of the more important breeds be seen in greater perfection. The 
one domestic animal of common note, not as well represented in Cali- 
fornia as elsewhere, is the hog; the obvious cause of the comparative 
neglect being the absence of a sufficiently long and regular period of 
freezing weather, whereby the safe packing and curing of pork, hams, 
&c., is rendered too precarious. While, therefore, fresh pork of excellent 
quality is commonly found in the markets, the supplies of bacon, ham, 
and lard are, as a rule, furnished by the Western States, and partly by 
Oregon. Foremost in numbers among the rest is undoubtedly the sheep, 
in its double capacity of wool-bearer and producer of some of the best 
mutton in the world; a combination which has doubiless contributed 
much to the preference given it on the part of the somewhat inert na- 
tive population. Easily satisfied with scanty pasturage, and in the south- 
ern part of the State scarcely needing shelter, the sheep is the very 
animal for the swarthy inhabitant of the adobe house, who loves to 
take his ease lounging on the airy veranda, asking of fate no luxury 
beyond a due allowance of cigaritos, and not at all envious of the greater 
comforts and riches of his unquiet, hard-working, and ever-scheming 
Saxon neighbor. 
The common sheep of the country, while far from being a high-bred 
animal, is yet superior in many points to the stock commonly found in 
other countries, and its adaptation to the climate has rendered it profit- 
able in cases where improved stock failed to pay. The Spanish Merino, 
whose blood doubtless runs in the veins of the native stock, seems to be 
best adapted to its improvement, and the best of this breed has been 
imported into the State. The wool-clip is among the most important 
products of South California; but it would seem that the attainment of 
the highest quality requires some change from the natural conditions of 
pasturage, which present too great a contrast between the wet and dry 
seasons to insure perfect uniformity of the fiber. This, however, can 
undoubtedly be accomplished by the introduction of the proper forage 
plants. In dry seasons, such as that or 1876~77, the mortality among 
the larger flocks has sometimes amounted almost to annihilation. The 
sheep-owners of the plains, in order to save something, have driven their 
flocks to the foot-hills and valleys of the high sierras, leaving their route 
marked with the festering carcasses of the weaker animals, and sweep- 
ing every green thing before them, to the dismay of the dwellers in the 
invaded regions, who were thus sometimes themselves reduced to extrem- 
ities. In ordinary seasons, this migration has its regular methods and 
routes, the herds ascending the mountains in the wake of the summer’s 
drought, and returning to the foot-hills or plains to winter. 
Of other fleece-bearing animals the Angora or Shawl goat has attracted 
considerable attention, and seems to succeed well; but the industry has 
not as yet assumed large proportions, chiefly, it seems, on account of the 
want of aregular market sustained by competition among the purchasers. 
Of horses.—The Mexican mustang, a rather undersized yet hardy and 
serviceable, but proverbially tricky, race, descended from the Spanish 
breed, and therefore far from being inferior blood, still forms the greater 
portion of the horses in common use in California. The larger American 
horse brought from the Eastern States, although preferred for heavy 
