268 
WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
for labor, but because they are obliged to pay for inefficiency — 
vexed, tortured in mind and body, and made slaves to the help 
they hire. 
There is no place here to discuss Chinese immigration in its 
moral and social aspect, but the question of labor is growing 
every year and every day more and more intricate and difficult 
to be solved, and there i»s am vig farmer 4 an irrepressible desire 
for relief. 
Throwing the Lariat and hatching Wild Cattle in Califor¬ 
nia .—We rise in “ the gray dawn” and breakfast early, on 
the morning of August 2d, f :r Olin was to have a new four- 
horse team from the rancho and drive us out on the plains 
among the wild cattle ; following Mr. Nichols and a band of 
old Californians mounted upon mustangs, and each armed with 
the lariat. This meant sport, and Olin drew his lines and 
handled his long lash in a way that plainly indicated there 
was to be no £ ‘ small driving,” so long as he filled the box. 
I had had a taste of “ break-neck speed ” the day before, 
down steep declivities, along the edge of mountains where a 
foot’s deviation from the track would have plunged carriage 
and horses in a shapeless mass below, making our hair stand 
on end at the reckless way he turned a corner or passed a ten- 
mule team on the edge of a precipice. But Mr. Howard as¬ 
sured us that “Olin’s head was level,” and that we were safe 
in his hands. So we shut our eyes over the worst places, and 
heard the whip crack and felt the carriage sweep and sway as 
it plunged after the galloping horses and slackened speed only 
at the next ascent. 
And so this morning we dashed along over mountains, and 
down into deep canyons, until we struck a broad plain in sight 
of the cattle, and here we halted. Then we saw in the dis¬ 
tance, the wild bulls, with flying tails, rushing over the plain, 
pursued by the horsemen. Now they plunge into the tall 
grass, and again the scamper and hurry of feet is heard as the 
horsemen turn the herd in the direction of the carriage. On 
they sweep in a body, led by a famous red bull, fleet as the 
