270 RURAL CALIFORNIA 



by producers, cooperative associations as indicated 

 in Chapter VII. 



It is not known when and by whose agency domestic 

 fowls came to California. They may have been 

 taken as a matter of course and, therefore, not 

 entitled to entry on the records of the time. How- 

 ever, it is known incidentally that the padres and 

 rancheros had them -because snatching from the 

 saddle a chicken buried to the neck in the sand was 

 frequently mentioned in travelers' records. The 

 improved breeds of fowls of their day were brought 

 to California by the American pioneers and were 

 shown at the state fairs of 1856 and later, but they 

 apparently did not attract much attention nor are 

 there recorded exhortations toward multiplying poul- 

 try products in the early days as were freely indulged 

 in for the promotion of other branches of local 

 production. But here again they may have been 

 considered too incidental and a matter of course. 

 Besides the chicken business was not, at that time, 

 anywhere in America thought to be much of a pursuit 

 for a man and the women may have shrunk from the 

 trials of keeping hens in a wild open country which 

 was a parade ground for skunks, wild-cats, coyotes 

 and the like. Whatever the reason may have been, 

 little was done with domestic fowls in the earliest 

 American days and that came about and increased 

 without particular promotion. As late as 1867 H. D. 

 Dunn, who wrote a detailed promotive sketch of Cali- 

 fornia opportunities, could only say this : "All the do- 

 mestic fowls thrive well and increase rapidly in Call- 



