Los Angeles herald., 1905-01-22

was no accumulation Of food-not a
bale or bushel Of grain. The result
ought to have been known and guarded
against. FIocks Of sheep and bands OF
cattle and horses by the million were
swept away. Some were saved by being
driven to the mountains. Bear valley
was favorite resort Of the sheepmen'
and their fiocks dropped by the thou
sand on the way. The advent of that
drouth prevented Los Angeles county
from becoming the most noted mutton
producer i'm the United States as thus;
Sir Robert Burnett, from whom Mr..
D. freeman bought the Centinela-Sau~
sal Redondo ranches, had imported
fine band of Southdown sheep and had
some ten or twelve thousand of the
finest graded sheep in the, United states
when he turned them over to Freeman.
Finding grass growing short the lat
ter sold them to e. j. Baldwin, who
thought he could pull them through
on his bountiful Sierra Madre ranch
which that gentleman had lately
bought from the Newmarks. Vain
hope! They were sent up to Bear val
ley, which Baldwin was holding at that
time with a choice band of gun fighters
on some mining proposition, and few
Of them ever got back to Los Angeles
a Brute AceIdama
The ordinarily fair land of Los An
geles was a pitiful sight in that MEM
orabe season of 1857. I made it
point to see the havoc for myself.
From the center all round to the sea-
with desolation the land was made
desolate," to associate the spectacle In
a double quotation from Robinson
Crusoe" and the ancient testament.
Hundreds of thousands of carcasses OF
dead sheep, dead horses and dead cat
tie numbered the earth. They were
slaughtered for their hides. The ef-
nuvium made pestilence imminent and
1t an affliction to make the rounds.
In one of my trips l saw corral of
twenty-five handsome young colts sold
near Compton for $50 cents apiecel
Why the enterprising owner did not
strip the hides himself do not know.
tIlldpS DS dlu llOI hliOW iON' L iiiShNAI
tell what 1 saw. The poor fellow was
probably desperate and wanted to let
the tail go with the hide.
The great extent Of the disaster of
that year-the last year of drouth in
its horrible sense-was the utter lack
of any preparation to fight it off. That
it did good is unquestionable. 1t made
Southern California the most prosper
Gus horticultural and agricultural
region in the world. When this, in
one sense baneful visitation, took place
this section began to fill up with a
highly intelligent, resourceful and in
dustrious population, who saw that
there were better things ahead than
surrendering fine lands to the shepherd
and herdSman.
The universal slaughter of sheep, cat
tie and horses by the drouth of 1857
brought it's lesson in prudential meas
ures against deficient rainfall. In
1886 l paid a visit to the 100000 acre
farm of Messrs. Haggin & Carr, in Kern
county L was told by the manager of
this splendid property that there was
enough hay and grain stored upon IL
to take care of the whole southern end
of the state in the event of another
visitation of drouth. The lesson had
been a costly one, but it had been we'll
taken to heart. The example of the
Messrs. Haggin & Carr was generally
followed in the adjoining counties of
Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Ven
tura.
Short as was the rainfall in 1S76-77,
it showed what could be done in Los