216 RURAL CALIFORNIA 



American and Spanish cattle were generally used. 

 Pedigreed animals, horses, cattle, sheep and swine, 

 were fairly rushed into the State by the pioneers. At 

 the first formal cattle show in 1856 in San Jose, the 

 president, E. L. Beard, said: "We raise a very 

 large amount of stock and no state has greater 

 natural advantages for the cheap and easy produc- 

 tion of stock. I see also, in the fact that large sums 

 are beginning to be expended by some of our most 

 enterprising citizens for the introduction of the im- 

 proved breeds, a token that we shall shortly take that 

 precedence to which our soil and climate entitle us." 



It only took about a decade to fill the State with 

 grades and thus establish a new common stock on 

 which later achievements in improvement have been 

 based. Writing in 1868, T. F. Cronise said: "The 

 wild cattle of the Mexicans are poor, long-horned 

 and lank, but they cross well with imported stock, 

 carrying the fine points of the latter and the en- 

 durance of the former. Great attention has been 

 paid to crossing and very soon the pure native stock 

 will be extinct, for it is unprofitable." 



Pure-bred Shorthorns were first to be officially rec- 

 ognized. They comprised all the exhibits of pedi- 

 greed stock at the cattle show of 1856 and of follow- 

 ing years until Devons, Jerseys and Ayrshires were 

 recorded in 1863 and Holsteins were added in 1872. 

 Herefords were acknowledged in 1878; Guernseys in 

 1882; Angus in 1884; Galloways in 1886. Short- 

 horns have never lost their . advantage of priority. 

 For several decades the common stock was predomi- 



