ce, until the increase of the flocks threatened ranges and
forests with destruction. As late as 1876 there were some 7,000,000
sheep, in 1900 only 2,581,000, and in 1906 only 1,750,000. In the total
value of all live stock (5,402,297 head) in 1900 ($65,000,000) the rank
of the state was 15th in the Union, and in value of dairy products in
1899 (12.84 million dollars) 12th. The live-stock industry showed a
tendency to decline after 1890, and the dairy industry also, despite
various things--notably irrigation and alfalfa culture--that have
favoured them.

Cereals replaced hides and tallow in importance after 1848. Wheat was
long California's greatest crop. Its production steadily increased till
about 1884, the production in 1880, the banner year, being more than 54
million bushels (32,537,360 centals). Since 1884 its production has
markedly fallen off; in 1905 the wheat crop was 17,542,013 bushels, and
in 1906, 26,883,662 bushels (valued at $20,162,746). There has been a
general parallelism between the amount of rain and the amount of wheat
produced; but as yet irrigation is little used for this crop. In the
eighth decade of the 19th century, the value of the wheat product had
come to exceed that of the annual output of gold. Barley has always been
very important. The acreage given to it in 1899 was one-fourth the total
cereal acreage, and San Francisco in 1902-1904 was the shipping point of
the larger part of American exported barley, of (roughly) three-quarters
in 1902, seven-eighths in 1903 and four-fifths in 1904. In 1906
California produced 38,760,000 bushels of barley, valued at $20,930,400.
The great increase in the acreage of barley, which was 22.5% of the
country's barley acreage in 1906, and 24.2% in 1905, is one reason for
the decreased production of wheat. The level nature of the great grain
farms of the valley led to the utilization of machinery of remarkable
character. Combined harvesters (which enter a field of standing grain
and leave this grain piled in sacks ready for shipment), steam
gang-ploughs, and other farm machinery are of truly extraordinary size
and efficiency. In 1899 cereals represented more than a third of the
total crop acreage and crop product ($93,641,334) of the state. Wheat
and other cereals are in part cut for hay, and the hay crop of 1906 was
1,133,465 tons, valued at $12,751,481. California is one of the leading
hop-producing states of the Union, the average annual production since
19