January, 1906 
PVE ERG AN i ELO MES 
AN DVLGAIRIDE'N’'S 29 
Home of a Sheep Raiser in California 
By Charles F. Holder 
ae 
ERY HERE is a flavor of romance about farming 
(and stock raising in California which does 
not hold in other portions of this country. 
The every-day farmer of the Middle West 
is not, as a rule, a picturesque person. The 
winters are cold in the extreme, while the 
summers are intensely hot. The country is flat and un- 
dulating. Children are born and grow to manhood and 
even die without seeing the great oceans or a high mountain 
range. In California there is something that attaches to the 
development of the soil which gives it a certain dignity that 
it does not possess elsewhere. Here the farms are ranches. 
It is the Rancho Pasqual, 
the Rancho San _ Rosario, 
and down from the time of 
the mission fathers come 
the legends of the original 
farmers in California, 
priests and Indians. 
The Spanish fathers were 
the first sheep herders in 
California, the first to en- 
rich the soil. They blazed 
their trails from Mexico up 
the coast, down into Texas, 
out onto the peninsula from 
La Paz to San Francisco 
and beyond, everywhere 
leaving the seeds that grew 
into great farms or ranches 
of which the mission was 
the central point. Acres of 
vineyard grew and thrived. 
Stock was introduced until, 
in following years, the 
ranches of the Franciscans 
were models for the world, 
illustrating what the seem- 
ingly dry arid lands of 
southern California can 
produce if properly planted 
and irrigated. The flocks of 
sheep of the fathers in- 
creased until they became a 
valuable asset, some mis- 
sions having twenty or 
thirty thousand, which were 
herded by the Indians and 
driven all over the great 
valleys of southern California. It is this past, the age of 
vast domains, the age of principalities and vast holdings, 
that has cast a glamour of romance over the ranches of 
southern California of to-day; and the entire process of 
herding sheep has been invested with peculiar interest 
that is not artificial in any respect, being essentially 
picturesque. 
Among the most interesting sheep pastures in California 
are those on the islands of the coast. Santa Rosa Island is 
about twenty miles long, and from six to seven in width, 
made up of mountains, hills and valleys. It lies off Santa 
Barbara, and is a vast sheep ranch, the animals roaming 
over the entire expanse. San Clemente Island, one hundred 
Gold of Ophir and Oranges near the Sheep Rancher’s House 
miles to the south and forty miles out to sea, is also a sheep 
ranch, this being Government property, while Santa Catalina 
Island, in Los Angeles county, one of the largest of the 
group, except in the vicinity of the’ town of Avalon, is one 
of the most extensive and attractive of these sheep ranches, 
having an elaborate system of fences. The island has for 
years been a sheep ranch, the animals roaming over the en- 
tire area; and a most picturesque sight is the rounding up of 
the sheep for the shearing. ‘The writer watched this opera- 
tion some years ago, and was particularly interested in 
the riding of the Mexican herders, who, mounted on rather 
small, wiry horses, performed feats of horsemanship that 
were astonishing. 
The upper island is a 
jumble of mountain ranges 
down which steep canons 
sweep almost in every direc- 
tion. They are well wood- 
ed, filled with a dense 
chaparral, heteroneles, 
adenostoma (greasewood), 
mountain mahogany, iron- 
wood and manzanita that is 
often so closely interwoven 
that it is almost impossible 
for man or beast to force a 
way through. Yet the twigs 
and branches of this region 
bear little tufts of wool, 
showing that the sheep have 
penetrated the canon, and 
to drive them out the Mex- 
ican herders are forced to 
follow. I have seen them 
ride down hills that from 
an Easternstandpoint would 
seem impossible; dashing 
through the thick brush, 
climbing steep cliffs, demon- 
strating that a special horse 
must have been produced to 
accomplish such wonders of 
strength and wind. 
To accelerate the work 
the herders had long brush 
fences built, following cer- 
tain divides to prevent the 
escape of the animals, so 
that they could be driven in 
given directions; and as I followed the herders, stopping oc- 
casionally to rest my horse on some ridge or divide, the scene 
below was beautiful and exhilarating. From one point the 
trail dropped down so steep that to make a misstep was to 
roll a thousand feet perhaps into the canon below, and from 
where I sat in the saddle canons radiated in every direction 
filled with green brush, from which rose the plaintive bleat- 
ing of sheep, while on the precipitous sides could be seen the 
figures of the Mexican herders dashing in and out, up and 
down, the chaparral waving here and there as they plunged 
down, all telling of remarkable daring and skill in this 
peculiar round-up. 
In rounding up cattle on the mainland the riding is mostly 
