WEST OF THE MISSISSIPTI RIVER. 955 



It will be noted that 106,277^ fewer slieep in 1891 than in 1890, is 

 valued by the State board of equalization $322,318 higher for purposes 

 of taxation. There is little doubt that the chief cause of rise in values 

 is found in the fact that the consumption of mutton and lamb has in a 

 large degree overtaken production within the State. This has so af- 

 fected prices that mutton was quoted in early March, 1892, in San 

 Francisco market, at 10 and 11 cents per pound wholesale; while stall- 

 fed beef was quoted at 7 cents per pound. The best estimates obtainable 

 from the trade iti San Francisco place the annual slaughter of mutton 

 for that city and suburbs at 751,200 sheep, and 328,650 lambs, making 

 a total of 1,079,850 head. The consumption in the rest of the State is 

 estimated at as many more, though I do not think there is more than 

 half that number used in the country and smaller towns and cities. In 

 many of the former, butchers do not keep mutton at all, because of its 

 great cost as compared with beef. In some of the counties sheep have 

 so diminished in number that they are no longer the common and con- 

 venient meat for country use, as they were in the prosperous period of 

 wool-growing, when mutton could be bought at 2J to 3J cents per 

 pound in the dressed carcass. From the influence, then, of the high 

 market price for mutton, I conclude that the present consumption of 

 mutton outside of San Francisco and suburban cities is overestimated 

 by one-half, and place the estimated consumption of sheep and lambs 

 at 1,600,000 head, and the aggregate valuation at $5,600,000. 



The estimated wool yield of California for 1891, given in the National 

 Wool Manufacturers' Bulletin, is 24,130,015 pounds. My estimate places 

 it at, shorn wool, 18,215,351; pulled wool from slaughtered sheep, 

 4,133,375; total wool crop of 1891, 22,348,726 pounds. Sold at an aver- 

 age value to producers of 15 cents per pound, $3,352,308.90. 



Estimating that 1,100,000 of the sheep and lambs consumed in Cali- 

 fornia were from the flocks of the State, at $3.50 per head, gives 

 $3,850,000 as the value of her mutton and lamb product, making 

 $7,202,308.90 as the annual value of her sheep and wool industry for 

 1891. 



At present, in the central coast counties of California, the attention 

 of those continuing the pursuit is turned to the production of early 

 lambs and mutton. But few of the district fairs held last year in those 

 counties had any sheep exhibited, but such as had showed the interest to 

 be mainly in the English Down breeds. From San Francisco northward, 

 in the coast counties, the Merinos are crossed with the Southdowns 

 and still more with the Shropshires. As a rule no shelter is provided; 

 and most of the uplands, some of which are very rough and broken, 

 would be excellent for sheep ranges if it were not for the dense growths 

 of brushwood (and in some places young timber) steadily encroaching 

 on the clear land. The latter is so closely grazed that there are no 

 longer the dry grasses in the late summer, through which fires formerly 

 ran and kept back the brushwood and timber. This measurable cessa- 

 tion of forest fires and the spread of chaparral growth have resulted in a 



