AGRICULTURE AND SOILS OF CALIFORNIA. 493 
work, is not so well adapted to the mountains and requires higher feed- 
ing. The two varieties are of course rapidly mixing, and better blood 
than that of many California studs it would be hard to find anywhere. 
Fast horses and fast men have here, perhaps, more than elsewhere been 
the bane of the agricultural fairs, whose real and important objects 
have, until lately, been most frequently swallowed up in that of an 
opportunity for betting and horse-racing, to the disgust of the agricul- 
turists. The introduction of the more useful breeds has not, however, 
been neglected, as is evidenced by the fine Norman and Percheron dray- 
horses seen on the streets of San Francisco. A tolerable riding-horse 
can probably be bought for less money in California than anywhere else 
in the United States, the mustangs (which are generally of light build) 
being bred in large herds on pastures, with little care and therefore 
little expense. But when the excursionist pays twenty or thirty dollars 
for his steed he must not expect to find it trained to gentleness and 
affection, for the ‘“breaking-in” process which these animals undergo 
on the ranches has but few of the features that Mr. Rarey would recom- 
mend. The unwary horseman will pay for his experience by many an 
unexpected nip or kick, or by being left on foot at inconvenient distances 
from his destination, in consequence of a dexterous slip of the rein from 
his arm, a sudden rush under a tree with low branches, or a “bucking” 
process of exceptional suddenness and violence. The mustang will, 
ordinarily, abandon these practices in proportion as it feels that the 
rider is “up to” its tricks; but the latter should never be found alto- 
gether off his guard against them, as he might safely do with a well- 
* educated horse. 
The neat cattle of California, previous to the American occupation, 
were chiefly of a type whose ancestry may still be seen on the pastures 
of Andalusia—a middle-sized race, lightly built, bearing medium, long, 
but aggressively-pointed horns, which, combined with an irritable tem- 
perament and a fair capacity for speed, render the proximity of a herd 
of these cattle not altogether pleasant to the novice. Like its cousin, 
the Texas Long-horn, now familiar to the West, it is a hardy, prolific race, 
yielding a fair quality of beef, and a thick and tough hide, well adapted 
either to the production of sole leather or to that of the strong rawhide 
thongs, which serve the Mexicans in place of rope, twine, nails, and 
other domestic appliances deemed indispensable by more pampered 
nations. As milkers, however, its cows are a failure; nor are its oxen 
remarkable for either docility or disposition to engage in agricultural 
pursuits, being the natural result of a nomadic life on wild pastures, from 
which they were driven in and “corraled,” for branding or slaughtering, 
only a few times in the course of the year. All this, of course, has 
materially changed since the advent of the American. The immigrants 
brought their cattle with them over the plains, and found no reason to 
exchange the progeny of these for the pugnacious natives. The latter 
have, therefore, greatly diminished in numbers, and are little seen in 
the more populous regions, retiring before the advance of culture like 
their original masters. The gentler race that accompanied the Ameri- 
cans across the Rocky Mountains now dots the plains and foot-hills of 
the Great Valley of California; and since their weaker brethren mostly 
perished on that trying and weary voyage, a process of selection has 
taken place, as a result of which the worst breeds of “scrubs” are rarely 
seen in the State. Moreover, the tendency to improvement that is so 
apparent in the use of perfected appliances of every kind has manifested 
itself at least equally in the importation of the best breeds of neat cat- 
tle, among which the Short-horn, Jersey, Alderney, and Ayrshire, and 
