214 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 
four hundred and thirty-eight acres) of land; aud the govern 
ment granted it away without charge, in tracts varying from 
one to eleven leagues, to anybody who would undertake to 
erect a house and put a hundred head of cattle on the place. 
It was common for one man to own five thousand head of cat- 
tle. The cows were kept for breeding, and the steers were 
regularly killed as they reached the age of three or four years. 
All had the freedom of the country, and ranged where they 
pleased, except that several times a year every man collected 
his own upon his ranch. There was about one bull to fifty 
cows. No attempt was made to improve the breed, nor was 
any profit to be obtained from an improvement. Most of the 
calves were born about the beginning of the year, and in March 
the first rodeo was held. 
§ 158. Rodeos——The word rodeo comes from the same root 
with “rotate,” and means a surrounding, a gathering of all 
the cattle on a ranch, and the separation and removal of those 
belonging to other ranches. There are general and special 
rodeos. A rodeo may be for one ranch, or for several; but 
every ranchero owning a large ranch and many cattle has his 
own rodeo. Every large ranchero must have at least one 
rodeo in the spring, and another in the fall. The general rodeo 
is held for the benefit of all the cattle-owners in the neighbor- 
hood ; the special rodeo is held for the benefit of some partic- 
ular person or persons who desire an opportunity to remove 
their cattle from a ranch. Every owner of a rancho is required 
by law to give a general rodeo every spring. 
When a general rodeo is to be held, the ranchero sends no- 
tice several days or weeks in advance to the cattle-owners in 
the vicinity; and in the cattle-districts the neighborhood ex- 
tends forty or fifty miles, for cattle will stray that distance. 
On the day appointed, the ranchero having selected some 
place where the cattle are to be collected, sends out his mount- 
ed vaqueros or herdsmen at daylight to drive the cattle to the 
appointed place, where they are gathered at ten o’clock. By 
that time, the interested rancheros with their vaqueros have 
