214 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



four huiulrcd and thirty-eight acres) of hind; and the govern- 

 ment granted it away witliout charge, in tracts varying from 

 one to eleven leagues, to anybody wlio would undertake to 

 erect a house and put a hundred head of cattle on the place. 

 It was common for one man to own five thousand head of cat- 

 tle. The cows were kept for breeding, and the steers were 

 regularly killed as they reached the age of three or four years. 

 All had the freedom of the country, and ranged where they 

 pleased, except that several times a year every man collected 

 his own upon his ranch. There was about one bull to fifty 

 cows. No attempt was made to improve the breed, nor was 

 any profit to be obtained from an improvement. Most of the 

 calves were born about the beginning of the year, and in March 

 the first rodeo was held. 



§ 158. Rodeos. — The word rodeo comes from the same root 

 with " rotate," and means a surrounding, a gathering of all 

 the cattle on a ranch, and the separation and removal of those 

 belonging to other ranches. There are general and special 

 rodeos. A rodeo may be for one ranch, or for several ; but 

 every ranchero owning a large ranch and many cattle has his 

 own rodeo. Every large ranchero must have at least one 

 rodeo in the spring, and another in the fall. The general rodeo 

 is held for the benefit of all the cattle-owners in the neighbor- 

 hood ; the special rodeo is held for the benefit of some partic- 

 ular person or persons who desire an opportunity to remove 

 their cattle from a ranch. Every owner of a rancho is required 

 by law to give a general rodeo every spring. 



When a general rodeo is to be held, the ranchero sends no- 

 tice several days or weeks in advance to the cattle-owners in 

 the vicinity ; and in the cattle-districts the neighborhood ex- 

 tends forty or fifty miles, for cattle will stray that distance. 

 On the day appointed, the ranchero having selected some 

 place where the cattle are to be collected, sends out his mount- 

 ed vaqueros or herdsmen at daylight to drive the cattle to the 

 appointed place, where they are gathered at ten o'clock. By 

 that time, the interested rancheros with their vaqueros have 



