AG lil CU LTU KE. 233 



in California is, that in tlie summer the wool gets full of the 

 little burs of the bur-clover, which gives much trouble in wash- 

 ing and carding. By sheering early this trouble is to some 

 extent avoided. Of course the sheep gi'ow lean in the late 

 f:il!, as do the horses and neat cattle, and some of tliem die of 

 starvation. The same remarks may apply to high-bk)od sheep 

 as to other high-blood animals — they must degenerate if they 

 get no cultivated food ; but the stock may be kept up by cross- 

 ing with high-fed bucks of pure blood. 



§ I7l. Swine. — Swine are not favorite animals in Califor- 

 nia. They increase rapidly and are healthy, and their meat 

 commands a high price, but they do not thrive upon the dry- 

 pastures ; they are not permitted to run at large in many coun- 

 ties ; the mast is scanty in the agricultural counties, and grain 

 suital)!e for feed is dear. It is probable that in a few years 

 gi'eat numbers of swine will be bred in the tules, the roots of 

 wiiich they like to eat ; but the tule-lands at present are in 

 wide undivided tracts, and the swine which have access to 

 them soon get lost. The present number of swine in the state 

 is about six hundred thousand. 



§ 172. Poultry. — Poultry command very high prices in this 

 state, but all attempts to breed them on a large scale, have 

 proved unprofitable. Hens are worth from fifty to seventy- 

 five cents each, and eggs from twenty-five to fifty cents per 

 dozen. Chickens are healthy and increase rapidly in small 

 poultry-yards or farms ; but when more than five hundred are 

 collected a fatal epidemic appears, and they die off. The dis- 

 ease seems to be a kind of apoplexy, for it attacks the fattest 

 chickens, and they die suddenly. One large hennery, on the 

 French plan, has been established about eight miles from Oak- 

 land, and it contains one thousand five hundred hens, with 

 accommodations for five thousand. The poultry-yard covers 

 four acres of ground, and one acre of it is separated from the 

 remainder. The hens lay in the lower story of a frame house, 

 which is open on one side. The nests are in a long trough, a 

 foot square, open on top, and separated into nests by partitions. 



