hubert howe bancroft - Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History ...

MEXICAN BREEDS. 53
Stock-raising was the chief occupation of colonial
days, and hides were almost the only medium of exchange.
The animals introduced from Mexico, of deteriorated
Spanish breed, increased rapidly, until in
1834, the last year of mission prosperity, they numbered
scores of thousands. They roamed in untamed
freedom, and a portion overran the interior valleys in
a wild state, a condition which by no means served to
improve the quality, distinguished as it was by * scrub'
colors and light weight; the cattle by long, thin legs,
heads high and slender, wide-spread horns; and the
sheep by short, coarse wool. The incoming Americans
brought at first stock valued chiefly for strength
and endurance. A large special importation followed
in response to the high prices of early mining days,
partly for breeding, and by 1862 the number of cattle
had increased to over 2,000,000, as compared with
262,000 in 1850. Then came the disastrous droughts
of 1862-4, which destroyed several hundred thousand
by starvation and forced slaughter, and created so
wide-spread a mistrust as to greatly curtail the industry.
It made a perfect revolution in the business, by
giving prominence to sheep, by changing many cattle
districts to farming regions, and by obliging the adoption
of more careful methods, such as the better
apportionment of cattle to pasture, and the wide introduction
of fencing, partly under compulsory laws. But
compensation was found in the improved feeding and
breeding, marked also by greater and better yield of
beef and milk, and by reduced loss from diseases
and accidents, with diminished expenses for herding.
Cows calve before they are two years old. The business
is now mostly combined with farming, with a
desire to still further raise the breed. Few of the
Spanish stock remain, for the south had suffered most
from the droughts. The census for 1870 returned
one day's curing is enough. The Census gives the hay harvest for 1850, I860,
1870, aid 1880 at 2,000, 305,009, 551,000, and 1,135,000 tons, the last named
from 758,000 acres, Sta Clara leading with 71,000 tons.