150 NEW TRACKS IN NORTH AMERICA. 
when I passed through the country in the middle of Decem- 
ber), the virtues of which, I am told, are very great. If a 
worn-out horse is pastured on it, his stiffened sinews soon 
relax. He fattens faster than on anything else, and soon 
acquires a new lease of life and activity. I met some 
Americans who were in the habit of buying broken-down 
horses in the States, and taking them down to Sonora to 
regenerate them. 
The climate is all that can be desired; frosts, in winter, 
occur over the greater part of the State—a very necessary 
tonic for the health of the stock. Enough rain falls during 
the year to replenish the tanks of the stock ranches. The 
winters are never so severe as to require stall-feeding, nor do 
the occasional falls of snow lie long on the ground. The food 
changes with the seasons, and there is always an abundance. 
No diseases of any kind are known to prevail among the stock 
north of the line of frost, but farther south, on the rich lands 
of the Yaqui and Mayo country, periodical epidemics, similar 
to those of southern Texas, sometimes attack the high-fed 
cattle. While horses, horned cattle, and goats thrive well on 
the plateaux, fine wool-bearing sheep will prove remunerative 
in the mountain regions only, because the heat of the mid-day _ 
sun has been found to thin the fleece.* 
Many districts were once famous for the enormous quantity 
of stock raised by the rancheros. Amongst these were San 
Pedro, San Bernardino, and Bucuachi, in the north-east; 
Altar and the country north of it; Norea, Cruces, and La 
Posa, north of Hermosillo; and many other places where not 
a head of cattle is now to be seen. It was pitiable to ride, 
day after day, for many hundred miles through magnificent 
* Sheep-farmers of South Australia may think the last remark an error. 
Some varieties may be able to stand the heat without injury to the fleece. 
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