The
herds were driven up and into a corral where several shearers could work
at a time. Snip, snip, snip, went the shears hour after hour. It was the
boast of a good shearer that he could clip a sheep in seven minutes and
not once bring blood. As fast as cut, the wool was packed in a long sack
suspended from a framework. The dust was dreadful, and the man or boy
whose duty it was, when the bag was partly full, to jump in and tramp
the wool down so that the bag might hold more, would nearly choke before
he emerged into the clear daylight.
The passage of the no-fence law by the legislature of 1873, while it was
opposed by the sheep and cattle men, was one of the greatest aids to the
growth of agriculture, especially in the southern part of the state. It
provided that cattle and sheep should not be allowed to run loose
without a herder to keep them from trespassing. This saved the farmer
from the necessity of fencing his grain fields, a most important help in
a country where fence material was so scarce and expensive.
Colony Days
For some time after California's admission to the Union most of the
events of importance in its history took place around the Bay of San
Francisco and the junction of the Sacramento and San Joaquin; but early
in the seventies the south land awoke from its long sleep and took part
in history making, not in such stirring incidents as those of the days
of '49, but in a quieter growth that was yet of importance in the making
of the state.
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