222 RURAL CALIFORNIA 



decade and continuing to the present day, and by 

 irrigated dairying on an alfalfa basis which began 

 soon after and has also continued to the present with 

 rapidly increasing production. The first limitation 

 of valley cattle ranging came with the spread of 

 wheat-growing and the no-fence laws which were 

 passed in that period requiring a cattleman to drive 

 his herds across the valleys between parallel lines 

 of vaqueros to keep them off the plowed ground or 

 the growing grain. This was a costly hardship but 

 it was only a foretaste of the exclusion which came 

 with the subdivision of valley areas into farms and 

 the planting of fruits to be grown both by rainfall 

 and by irrigation as the local meteorology determined. 

 This practically put an end to cheap or free ranging 

 in the valleys and in much of the foothill country and 

 forced the cattlemen to become land owners or 

 lessees for the winter carrying of their stock and to 

 follow long drives to the mountain and high plateau 

 lands and forests for summer grazing. Then came 

 the closing of mountain pastures by forest reserva- 

 tions and by prohibition of including public lands in 

 range fencing. This was undoubtedly a matter of 

 abstract justice but at the same time it rendered 

 many enterprises for the turning of such pasturage 

 into beef and mutton impracticable, caused such 

 lands to be idle instead of productive and increased 

 the hardships of the range industry. Fortunately a 

 part of this handicap was soon lifted by a better 

 policy of rendering public lands useful to stockmen, 

 as noted in Chapter III. 



