Till-: NATIONAL FOIiKSTS OF CALIFORNIA 



13 



FORAGE 



Stock raising is the oldest industry in the State. The Spaniards 

 brought cattle to Mexico from the West Indies in 1525 and took them 

 into California as early as 1800 when they settled on the old land 

 grants. In 1850 California ranked high in the numbers of cattle in 

 the State, which were raised at that time principally for their hides. 

 The mission padres brought sheep in 1773, and the horses which 

 De Soto brought to Mexico in 1538, and abandoned, multiplied and 

 spread over the western plains. 



The herds and flocks belonging to the old Spanish aristocracy 

 slowly passed, together with their land grants, into the hands of the 

 Americans. The Americans herded their stock into the great interior 

 valleys, hitherto grazed only by deer and antelope, and pushed high 

 up into the timber and beyond to the mountain meadows of the Sierra 



CATTLE GRAZING IN THE NATIONAL FORESTS 



Stock raising is the oldest industry in the State, and in early days was attended by 

 violence and range wars. To-day the Forest Service effectively regulates the grazing 

 on 24,000.000 acres of Government and private land within the national forests 



Nevada. The pioneer stockmen had absorbed the spirit of their 

 predecessors and dwelt in peace and with friendly understanding of 

 each other's rights. Then came, in time, the foreign sheepmen, 

 Basques, who knew or recognized no prior rights or range boundaries. 

 There followed trouble and violence, range wars, and disregard of 

 each other's welfare as still more stock of new settlers was crowded 

 into the mountains. Forest fires burned uncontrolled over the sum- 

 mer ranges, pastures were trampled to dust and hillsides eroded, and 

 the young timber was destroyed or eaten by the hungry sheep. Then 

 came the inclusion of the mountain ranges in the national forests. 

 with allotments to provide for all who should have a share in the 

 range, both the settler with his few head and the owner who made 

 his living by running a large number of stock. 



Since that time there has been a marked improvement in the 

 condition of the livestock industry in tin 1 national forests. Regit- 



