vine and wine manufacturers in the different localities, who 

 Hhould also report their observations, cx|)ei'if7K'e and opinions to 

 tlio Board, all lo be embodied in the piiblisiied transactiuns, they 

 might perhaps be able to form some well defined landmarks, 

 whieh ma}' serve as incentives to enterj)rise, and guides in the 

 jH'osecution and development of tiiis i:;reat resource of wealth and 

 prosperity. If successful in tlie accomplishment of this object, the 

 •Society would have rendered a service to the people and the State 

 greater and more lasting than if, by some sujiernatural power, they 

 were to convert the whole bulk oi']\Iount J)iabit> intogokl dollars 

 and distribute them equally between every man, woman and 

 child within her borders. 



Tlie present anomalous condition of the general stock-raising 

 interest of our State may well attract the serious apprehension 

 of and engage the attention of the political economists and the best 

 business minds among us. The annual record of death l)y starv- 

 ation of a large percentage of the stock of our State, has become 

 almost as much a matter of course as the pei-iodical return of our 

 rainy seasons. During the unusually dry season of the past 

 Summer, a great nuniber of stock were driven to the mountains 

 of the Sierra Nevada and Coast Eange, where they found an 

 abundance of food to carry them safely through the dr}^ season, 

 but to return to the valley ranges to enrich the soil with their 

 decaying carcnisses. Many others were driven to the low land 

 suri'ounding the confluence of our large rivers, where sufficient 

 feed for the subsistence of nearlv half of the stock in the State, 

 during the Summer seasons, has for years past been allowed to 

 go to waste annualh^; but, when forced from these luxuriant 

 fields, by the sudden rise of the waters, the san\e destructive fate 

 awaited them as did those from the mountains. The last was an 

 extraordinary season, it is true, but if the owners of large herds 

 of stock would pursue the same course in ordinary seasons that 

 they did the last they would nuika a great improvement over the 

 usual custom t)f pasturing them on the same ranges tluring the 

 Summer on which they are compelled to keej) them during the 

 following Winter. 



But to reform and correct the evils and drawbacks at- 

 tending stock raising seems to require a pretty thorough 

 revolution in the whole farming system. The owners of large 

 hei-ds and flocks will be compelled to reduce them to such a 

 number as they can provide Winter food for; and the farmers 

 who have heretofore turned their attention almost exclusively 

 to grain raising, will find it much more profitable to raise a 

 greater variety of crops, and include in their annual sales of 

 the products of the farm, a few young horses, fat cattle, sheep 

 and hogs. The statement of two or three facts, will serve to 

 illustrate the extraordinary and disastrous condition of this 

 branch of industry, as it is now seen. During tlie last Summer 



