AGRICULTURE. 275 



Cotswolds, and Leicesters. According to the State statistical 

 report of 1873, California had in that year 4,000,000 sheep, 

 and as the yield was 30,000,000 pounds, the average 

 per sheep was seven pounds to the head. The Federal Census 

 report says the average yield per head was four and an eighth 

 pounds. California has the finest large herds of sheep in 

 the United States, and produces the most wool. The num- 

 ber of sheep in the State now is probably 4,500,000. 



The increase of a well-managed herd of sheep in California 

 is seldom less than 80 per cent., or more than 110 per cent, of 

 the number of ewes over two years old ; and the increase is 

 about the same in all the varieties, the average being about 95 

 per cent. Of the two-year-old ewes, 10 per cent, ha vet wins ; 

 of the three-year-olds, 30 per cent. ; of the four-year-olds, 35 

 per cent. ; and the percentage remains the same till they get to 

 be ten years old. From five to ten per cent, are barren each 

 year, but absolute barrenness is very rare. Two or three per 

 cent, of the lambs are separated from their dams during the 

 first two or three days, and die of neglect ; and two per cent, 

 die of injuries received while being marked. 



South of Santa Clara the grasses are more nutritious and 

 more abundant in favorable years than in the north, and the 

 climate is more genial. In good seasons an acre should sus- 

 tain a sheep. In the winter, spring, and summer, the herds 

 pasture chiefly on the alfilerilla and bunch grass, preferring 

 the former to everything else ; but in the fall nothing is left 

 for them save burr-clover, and they take to that. The burrs 

 are so rough that they sometimes cut through the gullet, or 

 stomach, and thus cause the death of the sheep. They also 

 get into the wool and seriously injure its value, because they 

 are set round with little spines, and can only be removed by a 

 gin. They are as brown as the earth, cover the southern val- 

 leys, and possesssing a rich nutriment, they enable sheep to 

 fatten on land that to the inexperienced eye looks as barren 

 as bare sand. These burrs are especially abundant in the wool 



