WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 951 



$12,000 -worth of bucks and ewes. I have now from 12,000 to 14,000 head, I suppose. 

 I have always got the highest price received from any large sheep ranch in Califor- 

 nia for my wool, and for twenty years have sold wholly in Boston, which is head- 

 quarters for my general business. It was twenty years before 1 ever saw any money 

 in the business, as 1 continued to buy land and kept in debt. I have been so much 

 engaged in other kinds of business, mining, cattle, manufacturing, lauds, real es- 

 tate in cities, etc., that I have not kept my matters segregated as much as others in 

 one business may have done, so I can not tell accurately what the business cost aud 

 paid. But I estimated some years ago that my 120 sheep had paid me $1,000,000, 

 principally from the acquisition and appreciation of lands, and have sold many hun- 

 dreds of thousands of dollars in wool and mutton. I estimate that those sheep 

 which cost me so high, when common sheep were selling for a few dollars, have been 

 worth from $8,000 to $10,000 per head to me, as they cleared over 20,000 acres of 

 land which cost low, and now I am selling land in small parcels at from $150 to $300 

 per acre. 



Yours, very truly, 



J. Parker Whitney. 



The foregoing letter of Mr. Whitney I deem valuable, both as show- 

 ing the enterprise of early California life, and also as giving cogent 

 reasons why, on account of the rise in land values, few if any men 

 engaged in sheep husbandry in California or even in Oregon or Wash- 

 ington, up to this date, can fairly charge the use of land against their 

 flocks. 



The records of exhibitions at the California State fair for 1 856 show 

 Aram & Knox as exhibitors of Leicestershires and Southdowns. In 

 those of 1857 a first premium was awarded to Searles & Win, of Solano, 

 for French Merino ram; and second premium to James Shepjiard, of 

 Santa Clara. 



In 1859 George Whitney, brother of J. P. Whitney before mentioned, 

 of Placer County, exhibited sheep as Saxon Merino; J. D. Patterson, 

 French Merino; C. Gallup, J. D. Stephens, and Haynes & Cheney, 

 Southdowns ; Daniel Davidson and Mr. Brewer, Leicesters. 



In 1860, which I consider the end of the pioneer period of Pacific 

 coast sheep industry, A. L. Bingham exhibited seven pens of Merinos, 

 amongst them (all good) was "a Silesian Merino ram which attracted 

 marked attention." J. D. Patterson had Webb (Jonas) Southdowns 

 and French Merinos; W. D. Stan wood, Southdowns; J. B. Hoyt had 

 Merinos. Four Cheviots were exhibited, and WilUam M. Landrum ex- 

 hibited Angora goats. 



While the foregoing men were thus showing the stocks of their early 

 beginnings, another class of men were too busy to attend exhibitions. 

 Some of those already mentioned as making the first drives across the 

 plains and mountains separating the Missouri River from the plains of 

 California, settled ujion sheep husbandry as a chosen pursuit, and 

 returned to the Mississippi Valley for the best stocks of ewes and rams 

 they could buy in quantities. Between 1856 and 1860 several parties 

 were engaged driving across the plains sheep designed as stocks for 

 wool-growing purposes, among which appear the names of Eawson, 

 Peters, Murray Brothers, Grayson, H. H. HoUister, the Dibblee Brothers, 



