San Andreas independent., 1858-04-24
Pastoral Capabilities of our Mountains

After eight years experience in at
tempts to render agriculture generally
profitable in the mountainous regions Of
California, we look around us and find
that branch of industry still languishing
The reason is quite plain. Soil and eli
mate are both against it. The great
length and heat of the dry season parches
up the hills and keeps the soil too thin for
the growth of large crops of grain and
corn. 1t is true, by the auxiliaries which
the necessities of the miner have created
In the construction of canals and bitches,
we can irrigate and raise gardens, vine
yards and orchards, in favorable locali-
ties; but these are the mere incidents to
agriculture, and will never do for popu-
latlon of American farmers to depend
upon Hence, we find that when our
people accumulate little capital by labor
In the mines, and take fancy to change
of pursuits, if they wish to farm, they
HE away to the valleys, where the land is
rich and yields ready harvest to indus
try If this system of management con-
tinue, it is clear that the mineral section
of the State will soon be impoverished
and depopulated How can this misfor-
tune be averted? We answer, by sensi-
BILE adaptation of pursuits to the laws of
climate and the circumstances surround
ing us.
The pastoral advantages of our foot
hills and lower ranges of mountains are
unsurpassed by any country on the
globe. If we cannot be farmers, then,
let us turn our attention to stock-raising;
it is lucrative, honorable and delightful
business, and constituted the wealth of
the lordly Patriarchs when the earth was
young. Before Egypt had been named
"the granary Of nations;" before Tyre
glittered in commercial pride upon the
waters, or the ships of Carthage contested
for supremacy with the navies of Rome;
there was pastoral nabob in "the land
of Uz whose name was job" who, be-
sides being upright and honest" was
the "greatest man in all the East -
before the galleys of Athens commenced
trafficking with the islands of the Medi-
terranean, the shepherd descendants of
Abraham and Lot had laid, between the
Jordan and the Euphrates, the solid
foundations of Chaldee and Jerusalem.
The wealth Of men was estimated, not by
the dollar and cent of commerce, but by
the number of their focks and herds-a
truer standard of wealth, it must be ad-
mitted, than gold and silver. These peo-
pie were wiser than we are; for they train
ed their industry into those channels that
their climate and physical geography die
tated. We are running counter to the
laws OF nature.
What if we are not able to compete
with the fertile plains of Texas and the
territory along the upper tributaries of the
Mississippi, in raising cattle? In sheep,
and mules and goats, they can never COM
pete with us. Dry and sterile as these
mountains appear in Autumn, they nev-
ertheless abound in precisely that sort of
grass upon which sheep and goats delight
to Craze. The former breed more rapidly
here than any where else; and the dry
ness of the climate, ESQ forbidding to ag-
riculture, is sure protection against the
diseases which elsewhere decimate sheep.
We are told that the finest wooled sheep
are raised in northern Spain and in a
few localities of southern France-bred
and herded in the mountains of Asturia
and along the slopes of the Pyrenees,
where the climate, soil and herbage re-
semble our own. But when the same
breed is transported to the harsh climate
and rich, wet soil of the Western States,
they laDguish and degenerate. Here,
there is every reason to believe the " Mo-
rino" of Spain would attain his utmost
perfection of size, vigor and quality of
fleece.
But it is customary for Americans, be-
fore they turntheir hands to any business,
to inquire into ''the market" for their sur
plus, Those who settled the Mississippi
Valley had no market for '3surplus," dur
ing twenty-five years; but by patient in
dustry, they at last forced open the thou
sand "gates of commerce." which now
swallow up their millions annually. 1t
we believe, universal law of trade. that
the greater the yield of an article the
greater the demand for it; and we never
knew people SO remote from what is
called the "centre of business" hnt tbot