California Agriculturist and Live Stock Journal. 



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Two Kinds of Cattle Husbandry. 



t-'^^^HE Colorado Fanner and Live Slock 

 Journal exactly expi-esses our senti- 

 ments upon this question : 

 A citizen of New Mexico owns 

 .^^.^ not less thuu forty-two townships 

 of land, and has it stocked with sixty 

 thousand head of cattle. In Texas there 

 are cattle ranches nearly as large, the 

 number of cattle ranging from twenty to 

 fifty thousand head. In early times 

 ranches stocked with twenty or thirty 

 thousand cattle were not uncommon in 

 California. 



There was an attractive side to this 

 primitive cattle husbandry. It was a 

 grand thing to send forward great herds 

 of cattle to market, or to ride over a do- 

 main as large as a whole county. But 

 this kind of cattle husbandry involved 

 no improvements. No crops were raised, 

 roads built or fences made. In short, 

 cattle raising as followed in New Mexico 

 and Texas, or as formerly in California, 

 tends to barbarism. The business de- 

 velops nothing that is be^t for the indi- 

 vidual; it stimulates no growth, encour- 

 , ages no agricultural improvements, 

 organizes uo society, supports no school, 

 and does nothing for a well-ordered com- 

 munity. 



There are few who sigh for the good 

 old times when if a hungry man wanted 

 a beef he took it from the fields, or if his 

 horse gave out he exchanged it for a fresh 

 one with the next ranch man. No doubt 

 the rude hospitality of these early times 

 was attractive. But then an ox was 

 worth little more than his hide would 

 bring, and a horse had no commercial 

 value. The "pastoral days" have de- 

 parted, and they are succeeded bj' much 

 better ones. 



The new cattle husbandry involves the 

 best improvements. When a farmer un- 

 dertakes to raise the best breeds of cattle 

 his enterprise is sure to carry him far 

 enough to adopt the best methods of 

 culture. The home-farm is put under 

 conditions of renewal. Itis conveniently 

 sub-divided, the exterior fences are well- 

 built, and the i^roblem is, bow many 

 cattle can be sustained on a given num- 

 ber of acres. These high bred cattle will 

 pay for .ill the care bestowed upon them. 

 They want rich pasture and a small area. 



The sheep and cattle husbandry which 

 have become accessories of the home 

 farm have an influence just the reverse 

 of primitive cattle husbandry. The lat- 

 ter was continually lapsing and carrying 

 everything towards barbarism ; the other 

 involves skill, stimulates the best meth- 

 ods of agriculture, and lifts up farming 

 to an intelligent and attractive home 

 pursuit. The great ranges of New 

 Mexico and Texas maj' serve a useful 

 purpose in furnishing beef for populous 

 cities, but even then it is not the best. 

 The business will disappear before the 

 advancing wave of population, becavise 

 the very conditions of success are im- 

 mense ranges and an .ibsence of popula- 

 tion. 



Best Tabieties of PE.is. — Early sorts 

 — Daniel O'Kourke, Carter's First Crop, 

 Bishop's Long Pod. Late sorts — Cham- 

 pion of England, Blue Imperial, Veiteh's 

 Perfection and several varieties of Mar- 

 rowfats. 



Mammoth, overgrown steers have had 

 their daj', and we now come down to the 

 neat, compact, well-fattened animal, both 

 in hogs and cattle. To accomplished 

 this in cattle, good feeding from a calf is 

 necessary." 



THE GREAT ANNUAL SALE OF 

 FINE STOCK. 



From Hon. Cyrus Jones, President of 

 the Short-horn Breeders' Association of 

 California, wo have received a catalogue 

 of the "Great Sale of Thoroughbred 

 Short- Horn Cattle, to be Sold at Public 

 .\uction at the Fair Ground in Sacra- 

 ments, on Thursday, April '20th, 1876." 

 This is the first spring sale, and it will 

 be conducted under the auspices of the 

 association above mentioned. 



The association first undertook to con- 

 duct the annual sales in the fall, during 

 the State and county fairs, but found 

 that, as the fall was not the season that 

 stock-raisers cared to purchase breeding 

 stock, they had better change the time 

 to the spring, when every intelligent 

 breeder is looking for animals to improve 

 his herds. 



We expect that there will be a rush of 

 competitors to this grand sale of fine 

 stock. There will bo no horse-racing, or 

 crowd of sight-seers as at the fair times, 

 to divert attention from the sales. Who- 

 ever attends will be likely to mean busi- 

 ness. The way such sales are attended 

 in the great Short-horn districts east of 

 the Mississippi should be a fit ex- 

 ample for the cattle breeders and own- 

 ers on this coast. There is no place 

 under the sun where .fine stock is more 

 needed than in California, to grade up 

 our bands of cattle alid improve the 

 general farm stock. There is every rea- 

 son why our stock men should be awake. 



The Short-horn Breeders' Association 

 of C.alifoi-nia is composed of the best 

 breeders of fine stock, and they represent 

 some of the finest Short-horns in Ameri- 

 ca. Several of the principal breeders 

 will put up some of their best, and an 

 opportunity will be offered to buy that 

 no enterprising owner of cattle can af- 

 ford to lose. Such breeders of thorough- 

 breds as Cji-us .lones & Co., Col. Youn- 

 ger and Wm. Quinn of San Jose, W'. T. 

 Overhiser of Stockton, John Brewster of 

 Gait, Moses Wick of Oroville, J. D. Carr 

 of Gabilan, M. B. Sturgis of Centerville, 

 and E. Comstock of Sacramento, will put 

 up several head each. We notice pedi- 

 grees of twentj--nine bulls and several 

 cows and heifers, and are assured that 

 several head of thoroughbreds not cata- 

 logtied will also be sold. Besides, there 

 are a number of fine grade Durham cattle 

 to be sold, also Berkshire swine and fine 

 sheep. 



We expect the time is not far distant 

 when much importance will be attached 

 to the annual spring sales. They only 

 need a little popularity to draw all the 

 cattle men and fine stock men on the coast. 

 But, really, now is the most important 

 time, for the sooner such stock is ob- 

 tained by our beef and butter producers, 

 the better for them and their stock. As 

 a purely business proposition there is no 

 better investment for a breeder than pure 

 blood. 



Camels. — The breeding of camels w.as 

 begun in Texas, twenty years ago, by an 

 importation of the War Department. 

 From Texas the camels were taken to 

 Carson valley, Nevada. The first im- 

 portation were India camels; the second 

 were the two-humped camels of China. 

 These two varieties cross well together. 

 The two-humped are preferable, as they 

 are more docile and kind to handle than 

 the one-humped. 



The breeding of the camels has been a 

 success, and, as pack animals, has Ufeen 

 profitable. They subsist on the sage 

 brush and less desirable herbage of this 

 rugged, barren region, and attain such 

 size as is unknown in any other country. 

 They were the largest we ever saw, and 



were selected with reference to shipping 

 in the cars. The largest ones could not 

 be put into the ordinary stock cars used 

 on the Pacific railroad. The man who 

 owns and breeds them is a Swiss, and 

 wants to sell out and return to his native, 

 land. It he does not, he intends to re- 

 move to Arizona with them, for the rea- 

 son that camels as pack animals frighten 

 the teams of " freighters" and make 

 trouble for him continually. Thej- breed 

 once in two years; and in this lot there 

 was one cow camel with her year old 

 calf at her side, taking his dinner like 

 any other great, saucy calf. The most 

 of these were two and three years old. 

 The five-j-ear-olds were, as stated, small- 

 ish selections from this herd, yet their 

 hums were very near the roof of the car, 

 and their odd-looking heads had to be 

 kept in a very cramped position. 



It is a matter of wonder and congratu- 

 lation that the breeding of superior cam- 

 els is added to the live stock interests of 

 the countr}'. From this camel-breeding 

 establishment can bo supplied all the 

 show animals needed for the world, as 

 the}' cost no more to rear than mules, 

 and are far better as pack animals. The 

 rigors of winter, and the heat of sum- 

 mer, are alike favorable to their growth 

 and prosperity. Nevada, though, is a 

 fine stock growing region for cattle, hor- 

 ses or sheep, as well. — Live Stock Jour- 

 nal. 



Sale op Short-Hoens Durisg the 

 Past Year. — Says the Pall Mall Gazette: 

 Short-horn sales are becoming almost as 

 sensational as those of thoroughbred 

 yearlings were a short time since, and it 

 is no uncommon thing for an animal of 

 the Bates or Booth blood, each of which 

 strains has its respective admirers and 

 even champions, to be sold for a price 

 equal to that which a Derby winner 

 would have realized a few years ago. 

 From comparative tables of the results of 

 those sales during the past year in Great 

 Britain and America, which are pulished 

 in the almanac of the Agricultural Gazette, 

 it appears that the total amounts reaUzed 

 at these sales were almost the same for 

 both countries. The returns refer only 

 to the sales of "pedigree Short-horns" — 

 that is to say, animals inscribed in the 

 Herd Book, which is for cattle what the 

 Stud Book is for the turf; and from them 

 we learn that, while the sixty-five sales 

 held in Great Britain yielded a total of 

 £228,088 16s. 6d., the' fifty-seven sales 

 in America amounted to £204,790 6s. lOd. 

 Each of the American sales amounted on 

 an average to £3,593, as against £3,509 

 for each of the English sales; but the 

 advantage does not in reality remain with 

 .American breeders, for though eight less 

 sales were held there, the number of an- 

 imals disposed of was within ten of 

 those sold at home. The 2,589 Short- 

 horns sold in America averaged £79 each 

 and the 2,589 sold in Great Britain £87 

 each. The largest total realized at any 

 one sale was £i2,919 16s., for which 81 

 animals belonging to the late Mr. Torr, 

 a Lincolnshire farmer, were disposed of 

 in September. The highest price given 

 at this sale was 2,160 gs., and the aver- 

 age for the whole lot was £510 19s. Still 

 more remarkable was a sale held in Scot- 

 land a week previously, when 39 ani- 

 mals, the property of Lord Dunmore, 

 brought £26,223 "l5s. This gives an 

 average of £672 8s. for each animal, one 

 of which went for 4,500 gs. At a third 

 sale 34 animals brought more than £10,- 

 000, and several others took place at 

 which the total was over £7,000 and the 

 average over £200. 



The most successful sale held in Ame- 

 rica was that at which 83 animals brought 

 £18,534 15s. 5d., with an average of 

 £402 19s. 9d. for the whole number, one 



of them reaching £3,225. At two other \ 

 sales in America totals of rather more 

 than £10,000 were obtained for 35 and 

 33 lots, the average in the two cases be- 

 ing slightly over and under £300. These 

 figures may be left to speak for them- 

 selves; but it is impossible to avoid the 

 suspicion that purchasers will not in the 

 long run get the best of the bargains. 



The London Court Journal says the fol- 

 lowing about Short-horns: 



Whether the top pnce for Short-horns 

 has yet been reached we do not know, but 

 that a Duchess bull was sold for 3,500 

 guineas is a "great fact." The animal 

 was named the Duke of Connaught, the 

 purchaser was Lord Fitzhardiuge, an<l 

 the price was paid at the sale of Lord 

 Duumore's castle at Dunmore, near Stil- 

 ling. It is not surprising to learn that 

 this acimal was described fts " the finest 

 Buchess bull in the world," and it is 

 satisfactory to know that he is not going 

 out of England. Strange to say, both 

 the sire and mother of the Duke of Con- 

 naught came from Canada, having been 

 bred there by enterprising purchasers of 

 Bates' stock. The other prices realized 

 at Lord Dunmore's sale were higher on 

 the average than ever before known. 

 .\nother Duchess bull brought 3,000 gs., 

 two magnificent cows, 1,950 gs. and 

 4,810 g3. respectively, and very few of 

 the animals offered realized under £300. 

 The average of the bulls was £992 IGg.Sd. 

 per head, and of the cows, £576 Ss. 6d. 

 per head, the total average of the sale of 

 39 lots being £672 16s. 8d. per head. 



American Beef on the London Mar- 

 ket. — An article in Tlie Fanner, publish- 

 ed in London, England, representing 

 that forty-two tons of American beef had 

 just been sold on that market for six 

 pence per pound, was deemed of suffi- 

 cient importance to telegraph to this 

 country. The beef in question was the 

 fourth consignment made by Eastman k 

 Martin, well-known dealers of New York 

 city. They claim to be the first experi- 

 menters in this direction, fitting up a 

 line of steamers with refrigerators of the 

 Bates patent, having a forced circulation 

 of air. While the enterprise has proved 

 successful in delivering the beef in good 

 condition in the new Smithtield Market, 

 it remains to be seen whether there is 

 sufficient margin in values between New 

 Y'ork and London to make it profitable. 

 Shipping about the best beef found in 

 this market, the first cost, with the sub- 

 sequent expense of sending abroad — us- 

 ing about 40 tons of ice to each 100 head 

 of cattle— so run up the bills that it is a 

 question whether a successful competi- 

 tion can be carried on with the choice 

 English and Irish beef sold at about 8 

 pence per pound. After landing in Liv- 

 erpool the meat is run to London by car, 

 and to prevent its getting dirty by hand- 

 ling, each quarter is bagged or wrapped 

 in cotton, so that the care, labor, and ex- 

 pense are considerable items in the cost 

 of deliver}-. Further experiments, with 

 a view of economizing some of the ex- 

 penses are being made, and the question 

 will soon be settled. 



The New York Sun says: The shipment 

 of American beef from this country to 

 EngKand is an established business. The 

 "Nevada," "Wyoming" and "Dakota," 

 of the Williams "& Guion line, have been 

 supplied with refrigerators, and two 

 others are being furnished in Liverpool. 

 The refrigerators are 40 feet long, 28 feet 

 wide, and 9 feet high. Atone side is an 

 ice-house, holding 40 tons. A blower, 

 run by a steam engine, keeps a current 

 of cold air from the ice box on the meat. 



The Foot and Mouth Dlsease in Ec- 

 EOPE — A Remedy. — The foot and mouth 

 disease continues to make its ravages 



