Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1900-03-31
THE GREAT HERDS.
A Former Golden Age in CALIFORNIA;
History.
The Grsat Herds Are Supplanted by Orchards
- Farms and industries

The days of the great herds of cattle
for which California has been famous,
along with her wonderfully big trees,
enormous ranches and fields of grain,
are fast passing away. In fact, they
have practically passed already. The
census of 1870 showed that there were
a dozen herds in California OF 3o,ooo
and 81 100 cattle each and scores or
herds of :. 900 and 5000 cattle each. Inc
census of 1890 revealed but three herds
over % 600, and less than a
dozen herds of more than 5000 cattle
Today here is but one herd of more
than 10000 cattle in the state ana Il
few scattering herds of 3'Ooo ana 4'ooo
heads. The last five years have seen
the fastest passing of the era or the
great holdings of ranch lands ana OF
the herds upon them. The constant
growth of the fruit industries. the de-
velopment of beet sugar enterprises
and the rapid expansion or the small
farmers and the enlargement OF towns
and cities are all inimical to the cattle
industry on a large scale. TWO weeks
ago Mrs. Lugarda Alvalardo de Palo-
mares Of Pomona Valley died, and her
large landed estate is now in process
of legal division. The flocks and herds
will be sold. Last January the DE
Costa estate in Tulare county was
similarly divided, and the herds
ehipped to New York and Chicago.
In the last year the Chino ranch of
some 10000 acres. over which herd of
hn
sold for growing sugar beets. corn ana
fruits. and the remnants of the for
mer herd have been slaughtered and
shipped to Eastern markets. The cat
tie firm of Miller & Lux, at one time
probably the most important in its line
of business in the world, is at present
in course Of liquidation, and its nero
Of cattle, once numbering between ~. :
900 and $4,000, has been sold and III
vided into smaller herds. In the early
months of last year the Alvord estate
which owned something like io.ooV
acres Of land in Kern county and over
10000 cattle. was partitioned and the
cattle were disposed of to cattle
men or sent to market.
The passing Of the herds in Califor-
MIA marks an epoch in the industrial
history of the Commonwealth, as II
does in all the larger states in the
West. The first stage of civilization
has been occupation of the country by
the cattlemen, who put to the easiest
uses the miles and miles of broad
acres. free from railroads and fences
or obiecting persons. Then followed
the wheat and grain growers, who di-
vded the ranges into vast fields OF
grain. Next came the army Of set
tiers. and the great fields We're sub
divided into holdings of $50 or 300 acres
each In the older states, as in
Illinois and Iowa, as time goes on
these holdings grow smaller, and farms
of 100 acres are more common today
than farms of 300 acres.
In California the true days of the
cattle barony We're forty years ago
when the Spanish owned tWo-thirds
Of the monster state, and the Ameri-
can population was confined to few
hundred persons in the pueblos Of san
Diego and Los Angeles and several
thousand in and about the gold-craZy
city Of San Francisco. Those We're
days when eleven Spanish families and
Uncle Sam owned all the arabic farm
ing land in Los Angeles county. con-
sisting of over two millions of acres.
and four Spanish families in the San
JOAQUIN Valley owned what they be
lieved to be about 900, 900 acres. The
exact area was never ascertained.
There was no railroad west of the
Missouri then, and hardly mile OF
fencing in all California.
The days Of the great herds We're
picturesque. In them the rollcking
steer was mighty factor in affairs,
for he was about the only visible
means of support of his ease-lOving,
generous and dreamy Spanish owner;
several generations of the Spaniards
and their descendants failed to take
advantage of the agricultural re-
sources of the new Ell Dorado except
in very limited and listless way. The
history of the California beef critter
is an interesting one. He came in with
the Franciscan missionaries in the lat
ter part of the eighteenth century, and
with the waxing of his numbers grew
wild and of long horn. He it was that
made possible that idyllic life So charm
ingly described in the stories of pre-
American times in California. when
few worked. because it was really I'M
necessary and people put in most of
their time taking life easily. smoking
cigarettes. snoozing in hammocks and
unconSciously making an historical
background for future effects in fic-
ton. He il was that laid the founda-
tion Of colossal fortunes. Now the
herds have gone, and 50. too, have
H.. s,l f.,,.t,t hrriI I.,'
out of beef. bone hide and hoof.
What the Yankees turned later into
one of the greatest moneymaking in
duStrieS in the West could hardly be
called an industry as it was managed
in the days Of the Spanish regime in
California To a people constitutionally
adapted. 1t involved hardship ana toll
to seek precious ores in the mountains,
remote from home and all its attrac-
tiuns. and it was work to till the soil.
To own big herd Of cattle that would
multiply and care for itself. requiring
no attention excepting at the yearly
rodeo or roundup-that was the only
way to make money and live like a
gentleman. 50 the Spansh-Califor-
mans raised cattle in such numbers
that. owing to the limited market. the
possession of no more than few thou
sand head was of no particular ben