Ranching Traditions of Alta California

Ranching Traditions of Alta California
From UNDERSTANDING AMERICAN PROPERTY RIGHTS Siskiyou County Farm Bureau

Source: Robert Glass Cleland; From Wilderness to Empire, A History of California, 1542-1900; Alfred A Knopf, c1944, pgs. 132-137.
"Down to the time of the Gold Rush, the economic life of California centered almost exclusively in the cattle industry. The few hundred head of stock brought from Mexico by the early colonists, multiplied into thousands by the turn of the century. Within another twenty-five years, hundred of square miles of grazing lands were required to support the herds of even a single mission. After secularization...the province became a succession of great ranchos whose 'black cattle and beasts of burden' numbered into the tens of thousands."
"Life on one of the great ranchos, followed, in the main, the ancient customs, laws, and practices brought to Mexico by the early Spanish conquerors, there adapted to the conditions of the country, and thence transferred to California. Stock was grass-fed the year round, and ran almost wild on the open ranges..."
"Cattlemen were required to have three registered brands - the fierro, or iron; the senal, or ear mark; and the venta, or sale brand. At least once a year every ranchero held a general roundup, or rodeo, presided over by one or more Jueces del Campo, or Judges of the Plain, for the purposes of segregating the cattle belonging to different owners and of branding the calves..."
"...To keep the thousands of frightened, bewildered, and maddened creatures from stampeding, cowboys, or vaqueros rode continually about the herd, seeking to hold it together. Whenever an animal broke from the mass, a rider immediately roped him; or, seizing him by the tail, with a peculiar twist requiring both strength and dexterity, threw him heavily to the ground."
"Meanwhile, each owner and his vaqueros rode in and out among the cattle, separating such animals as he found marked with his own brand from the main herd. The question of ownership was seldom a difficult matter, because of the brands, and even the unbranded calves followed the cows to which they belonged. As an owner's cattle were cut out from the general herd, they were driven a little distance away, to a place previously chosen, and kept by themselves until the rodeo was ended. Here the rancher branded his calves and determined the number he could profitable slaughter during the coming season."
"A roundup of this kind was one of the most picturesque events of early California life. The vast herd of cattle, sometimes half a mile from center to circumference, the thick clouds of dust that rose from thousands of moving feet, the sudden dash after some escaping steer, the surprising feats of horsemanship, which were performed continually by the vaqueros, the bellowing of frightened and maddened bulls, the clash of horns striking horns, the wild shouts and laughter of the cowboys, all lent an air of excitement that the printed page cannot begin to reproduce."
"...Cattle were killed for food as they were needed; but the matanza, or wholesale slaughtering, was carried out only at certain specified times of the year."
William Heath Davis in Seventy-five Years in California; (1929), p.40. wrote:
"At the killing season, cattle were driven from the rodeo ground to a particular spot on the rancho, near a brook and forest. It was usual to slaughter from fifty to one hundred at a time, generally steers three years old and upward; the cows being kept for breeding purposes. The fattest would be selected for slaughter, and about two days would be occupied in killing fifty cattle, trying out the tallow, stretching the hides and curing the small portion of meat that was preserved."
"Money was little known and seldom used in California and almost all business transactions were carried on by barter. Hides, or 'California bank notes,' as they were called along the coast, had a fluctuating value of from one to three dollars...Long term credit was extended by the foreign merchant or his agent to the rancheros; and losses on bad debts, except perhaps in those cases where merchants or traders were dealing with one another, were very rare."
Davis described the system (Ibid., p.83.) as follows:
"The merchants sold to the rancheros and other Californians whatever goods they wanted, to any reasonable amount, and gave them credit from one killing season to another. I have never known of a single instance in which note or other written obligation was required of them. At the time of purchasing they were furnished with bills of the goods, which were charged in the account books, and in all my intercourse and experience in trade with them, extending over many years, I never knew of a case of dishonesty on their part..."
Source Andrew F. Rolle; California - A History (Second Edition); Thomas Y Crowell Co; New York; c. 1969. (pgs. 114-120)
Many of the holdings were at first stocked with horses borrowed from the missions which the settlers returned whenever the increase permitted. In 1840, William Heath Davis, Jr. estimated a total of 1,045 holdings of all sizes. About 800 of these were stocked with an average of some 1,500 head per rancho; about 1,220,000 head of cattle total. The term "California bank note" came to be used widely for a dried steer hide, which had a value of approximately $1.
Cowboys or vaqueros, (many Christianized Indians,) were required in large numbers because of the absence of fences in the territory over which the cattle ranged. "Free-roaming stock became so wild and fierce that it was unsafe to go among such herds on foot or unarmed; any man who rode the range was as likely to defend himself against savage bulls as against ferocious grizzlies, then often encountered near the mountains."
"The cattle continued to increase so that even bountiful California could not furnish enough pasture in years of drought. It sometimes became necessary for ranch hands to 'cut out' and kill the older animals. The horses too multiplied at such a rate that they often ran wild, so that similar measures were necessary to control them; some met their death by being driven over precipes into the sea and into rivers to drown."
At the cattle slaughterings, the hides and tallow were taken and a relatively small amount of meat cut into strips for drying. Most of the carcasses were left to be disposed of by Indians, wild animals, or to rot.
Although the primary non-ranching agricultural enterprise occurred at the missions, each rancho was generally self-sufficient. Indian laborers usually scratched the ground with a crude wooden plow, fashioned from the crooked limb of a tree and shod with an iron point. They sometimes harrowed the soil by dragging large branches along the surface. Next grain was scattered in the furrows.
Grain was cut with hand sickles and bound in sheaves, being careful to cut the stalks high enough so that enough seed was left for the field to replant itself. Threshing was done in a flat, hard, circular fenced area. The wheat was thrown in the enclosure and 75-100 mares driven around until the grain was trampled out. Winnowing was accomplished by tossing the wheat against the wind.
At first, grinding was by hand. Later, water driven grist mills. The most common mechanical method was the arrastra, which consisted of two crude circular millstones placed on top of each other. The lower was stationary and the upper rotated when a cross beam attached to it was dragged around in a circle by horse or mule.
Most of the private ranchos had small flocks of sheep for mutton and wool. Neither the Spaniard or the Indian was fond of pork. Hogs were raised mainly for lard, which was used for soap making.