[Illustration:  COAST VIEW, MENDOCINO COUNTY.]

CHAPTER IV.

SHEEP-GRAZING IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA.

In the last year I have received a good many letters from persons desirous to try sheep-farming in California, and this has led me to look a little closely into this business as it is conducted in the northern parts of California.

There is no doubt that the climate of California gives some exceptional advantages to the sheep-grazer.  He need not, in most parts of the State, make any provision against winter.  He has no need for barns or expensive sheds, or for a store of hay or roots.  His sheep live out-of-doors all the year round, and it results that those who have been so fortunate as to secure cheaply extensive ranges have made a great deal of money, even though they conducted the business very carelessly.

It ought to be understood, however, by persons who think of beginning with sheep here, that the business has changed considerably in character within two or three years.  Land, in the first place, has very greatly risen in price; large ranges are no longer easily or cheaply obtained, and in the coast counties of Southern California particularly large tracts are now too high-priced, considering the quality of the land and its ability to carry sheep, for prudent men to buy.

Moreover, Southern California has some serious disadvantages for sheep-grazing which the northern part of the State—­the Sacramento Valley and the adjoining coast-range and Sierra foot-hills—­are without, and which begin to tell strongly, now that the wool of this State begins to go upon its merits, and is no longer bought simply as “California wool,” regardless of its quality.  Southern California has a troublesome burr, which is not found north of Sacramento, except on the lower lands.  In Southern California it is often difficult to tide the sheep over the fall months in good order, whereas in the northern part of the State they have a greater variety of land, and do this more easily.  The average of southern wool brings less by five or six cents per pound than that of the Sacramento Valley; and this is due in part to the soil and climate, and in part to the fact that sheep are more carefully kept in the northern part of the State.

Many of the sheep farmers in the Sacramento Valley have entirely done away with the mischievous practice of corraling their sheep—­confining them at night, I mean, in narrow, crowded quarters—­a practice which makes and keeps the sheep scabby.  They very generally fence their lands, and thus are able to save their pasture and to manage it much more advantageously.  They seem to me more careful about overstocking than sheep farmers generally are in the southern part of the State, though it should be understood that such men as Colonel Hollester, Colonel Diblee, Dr. Flint, and a few others in the South, who, like these, have exceptionally fine ranges, keep always the best sheep in the best manner.  But smaller tracks, sown to alfalfa, are found to pay in the valleys where the land can be irrigated.