274 RESOURCES OP CALIFORNIA. 



taken care of, have lambs before they are a year old increase 

 one hundred per cent, every year. The cost of keeping large 

 herds is variously estimated at from thirty-seven to fifty cents 

 per head annually, exclusive of the interest of the land used 

 for pasturage. The wool of a good sheep will pay twice the 

 cost of keeping it ; and the wool and lamb together, of a fine- 

 blood ewe, are worth eight or ten times the cost. It is the 

 present custom to sell the wethers for mutton when a year old, 

 but this is bad policy, save with the poorest sheep. 



The old missions had large herds of sheep, but after the 

 management of those large establishments was taken from 

 the priests and given to civil officers, in 1833, the sheep were 

 neglected and most of them were killed. Twenty years later 

 very few were left in the State ; but there was a demand for 

 mutton, so large herds were driven from New Mexico. These 

 were a very poor stock, but they were for a long time the 

 only sheep that could be had. The first attempt to breed 

 sheep, as an exclusive business in California, since the Ameri- 

 can conquest, was commenced in 1853, by a poor man who 

 had nothing save nine hundred ewes ; and they increased so 

 rapidly, and proved so profitable, that within ten years he had 

 ten thousand sheep, sixteen thousand acres of land, and other 

 property to the value of one hundred thousand dollars, and 

 his wealth has greatly increased since. 



The business of wool-growing has advanced with more 

 steadiness, and has paid greater average and regular profits, 

 than any other agricultural occupation extensively pursued in 

 the State. The increase in the production was for a long time 

 fifty-five per cent, annually. In 1855 the yield was 300,000 

 pounds, in 1860 3,260,000, in 1865 6,445,000, in 1870 19,700,- 

 000, and in 1872 23,000,000. Every man who has managed a 

 large sheep ranch with knowledge and prudence has become 

 rich. 



The varieties most prized are the French and Spanish Mer- 

 inos, but in addition to these we have some fine Southdowns, 



