Page:Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol 2.djvu/443

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Agriculture had always been most carelessly conducted. The implements used in the fields were nearly the same as those introduced by the earliest settlers. The mills were few and primitive; and although the same extent of ground yielded nearly three times as much wheat as in England, and returned corn at the rate of one hundred and fifty fold, yet nothing was cultivated that was not absolutely needed for the maintenance of the missions and their immediate neighborhoods. There was no commerce to carry off the excess of production, and no enterprise to create a surplus for the purposes of trade.

At this epoch the whole cereal production of Upper California did not exceed—

The Californians, of that period, seem however, to have particularly delighted in the care of cattle. The idle, roving life of