Carson daily appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1873-1877, 1873-08-24
EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENTS.
San BCENAvESTCEA, Cal,
Aug. Is, 1873.

kii- Va SssA4Ac2Eist- u4e, iIiSi, INC NcU
growing business second, agriculture
ard third, the now somewhat suspende,
production OF TIE crude petroleum. o
the Sulphur Mountain Ranges. No lie
sctiption of this new and little know,
strip of coast is at all perfec. without
soICe facts and figures relating to thes.
Interests; and l viii very briefly tel
what l have learned concerning Ii.
same.
The lavish manner with which the
Mexican Government granted is lands
TO those who sought their possession
made it possible for the sheep grazeis to
get '.range" in sufficient tracts 20 enable
them to sustain great herds Of those
close feeding rum;rants, and the custom
has therefore become general in all this
country to count ones sheep b. the
thousand and ones land by the league
Col. HOLSTER of Santa Barbara, and his
associates SHARED last year fifty thou
sand sheep; and the magnitude of their
pastoral operations becomes apparent
wien state the simple fact that they
own one hundred and fifty thousand
acres of the mountain, ravine, valley
AID shore lands which, as they give a
peculiar feature to the topography Of the
coast, constitute what is know to the
mariner as Point Conception. The
Colonel told me tina: his fifty thousand
sheep yielded, last year, an average of
seven pounds to the fleece and that lie
sold the same at an average of fifty
cents per pound. That is to say, he
sold $50, coo pounds Of wool for $40, 900.
The Moore Brothers, alexander and
Henry own Santa Rosa Island which
contains 240 square miles-or 153, 600
acres. Here they keep their flock of
90, 900 sheep. Their average fleece, last
year. was five pounds. l don't know
what they got for their wool. On the
main land it is necessary to herd the
sheep: and the stock is the better for it;
for Just in proportion as the animal
verges toward a wild state its fleece be-
comes less valuable: that is to say, the
less culture the animal is habituated to,
the less is he a finely bred beast.
Nearly all the sheep on this lower coas:
have more less of an infusion. of merino
blood in their veins. Nobody who pre-
tends to serious business in wool |
growing tolerates the Mexican or mus
.ang'' variety. The average market |
1alue of sheep, by the quantity or herd,
S three dollars per head. There is no
,uch process known in these parts IS
'heep washing. The shearing is per-
Owned in wholesale way, and the wool
5 sent to market with Just SO much OF
lust and burrs and other impurities as
he sheep accommodates during his YEA
# grazing. II say ''his year of grazing"
or the graziers hereabout customarily
hear but once per annurn-except when
hey take off the fleece Of the lambs
4 the Fall-a method adopted by Hol-
ister and others with view to relieving
he young animals of what. in the rainy
eason, would gather and hold az un-
comfortable and chilling load OF moist
,re.l Some expert shearers will clip
hundred sheep a DAY; but the average is
bout sixty faces perman. The sheep,
S general thing, are very healthy-the
OF, in lis various forms, being almost
holly unknown, and there being but
.tle trouble from scab. OF the increase
{ big band. carefully heried, one can
I'm an idea from Colonel HOLSTERS
.ateweIt 70 NE rnat be raised, last year,
! his family Of fifty thousand Of sheep !,
all sexes and conditions, nineteen :
iousand Eve hundred lambs. $
The adobe lands are the lands for ;
leep feed. OF course. range is more o.
IS valuable in proportion to the scarcity !
brush growing thereupon: for, Is is
cry obvious, the more of underground !
iere IS to tear OF the Sleeps wool the $
IS value attaches to the range. The !,
alleys and foothills are rich il a.,iIsriG /.
r pin-clover, and b1rr oloyer-wlich ,
..,er is the reliable feed of the dry sea- :
1r. When the pia-cloyer is il growth,
the spring,ime, the sheep require no
a,er; but they must be within tie ;,
.ach of drink once day il the summer ,
me. These sbeep-grazing lands can I
: bought a; prices ranging from two to 2
= and eight dollars per acre. \
So much for''an outline of this pecU- d
II interest. 1t is carried on upon a p
" extensive scale in this as well as in '
.nta Barbara, San Luis Obispo, San [
Los Angeles, Kern, Tuia-e p
d other counties in this direction; but a
the coast counties the old business of b
rse and cattle raising is less and less t
important notwithstanding with a
Al l. |