22 WESTERN GRAZING GROUNDS AND FOREST RANGES 



sheep and horses covered the ranges in great numbers. 

 In 1834, according to Dana in his "Two Years Before 

 the Mast," a single trading vessel picked up in one 

 trip no less than 40,000 steer hides at three California 

 ports, San Diego, Monterey and Santa Barbara. Little 

 effort was made by these early graziers to grow feed 

 for their animals. They simply allowed them to scatter 

 over the hills and plains of the Pacific Slope where the 

 unlimited ranges afforded plenty of feed to meet all in- 

 crease without danger of overstocking. 



With the gradual settlement of the coast country, 

 due to the rush of gold seekers, and the increase in the 

 herds, the owners began to crowd over the summit of 

 the Sierras with their stock into Nevada and across 

 deserts and mountains into Arizona. While this east- 

 erly movement was taking place on the western slope, 

 the hardy pioneers from the eastern part of the United 

 States were pressing slowly out across the Mississippi 

 River. They passed through Missouri and across the 

 Missouri River into Kansas, where on those great sweep- 

 ing plains the tide spread out fan-shape, working slowly 

 and steadily westward. To the northwest they drifted 

 through the states of Minnesota, the Dakotas and Mon- 

 tana; to the southwest through what is now Oklahoma, 

 across the staked plains of Texas to western Kansas 

 and to Colorado. Another stream flowed in the track of 

 the Mormon expedition, which in 1847 blazed the trail 

 across the plains in an almost due westerly course 

 through the center of the then trackless and practically 

 unknown American Desert until Utah was reached. 



The Genesis of the Trail Herds. Probably the cradle 

 of the range grazing business was in the great state of 

 Texas, where the raising of cattle and horses, and later 



