218 RURAL CALIFORNIA 



esting to note that as early as 1856 when Governor 

 Bigler announced that the State stood eighth in the 

 census of farm animals, this declaration was also 

 publicly made by an enthusiast in the same year : 



"Why should we import cattle from Texas or Mis- 

 souri? Is it not almost incredible that in a country 

 like this, where cattle roaming over our mountains 

 and valleys, live and grow fat upon the food which 

 nature produces spontaneously, we should neverthe- 

 less import them from countries two thousand miles 

 distant and that too at an enormous cost? In the 

 natural course of trade precisely the reverse should 

 be the case and it will be the case before many years 

 shall elapse. In my opinion the time is not very 

 remote when California beef will be found in the 

 New York market/' 



It should be remembered that this prophecy was 

 made before the great range industry of the plateau 

 states was conceived; before there was any packing 

 industry in the Middle West to consume the animals 

 from the summits and west slopes of the Eocky 

 Mountains and before there were railways to move 

 them eastward. Under the circumstances, there- 

 fore, it was not unreasonable to conceive that the 

 California coast with its wonderful natural pastures 

 close to the ocean should send beef to the Atlantic 

 cities by ship, as there seemed no other region so 

 richly endowed for production and so eligibly situated 

 for transportation. 



Of course the development of the region between 

 the Sierra Nevada and the Eocky Mountains put an 



