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Thiswaswrittenby my mother, Anne Wil- lard McNabb, dated Sept. 7, 1994. Sheep were brought into Tehama County by the first settlers, and increased in the next 30 years to more than 300,000 head. That made this the largest sheep producing county in California in the 1880s. Those first settlers told of what appeared almost an endless meadow of wild oats, bunch grasses and clovers. (filaree came later from the San Joa- quin valley). They made no mention of winter — just the refreshing rainy season greening hills and valleys. A farmhand, building a wood fence at $30 per month and board, told in a letter of the valley in spring time: "For months now the plains have all been in flowers here, with every kind of flower; one kind resembles tulips and others marguerites. The plains give a superb view." The gold rush created demands for "meat-on- the-hoof." Sheep prices rose from 75 cents and $1 per head to $12 and $14 in 1849. The first sheep brought into the north Sacramento valley were rangy, coarse- wooled Spanish Califor- nia Churros, typical in the south coast country. But sheep of other breeds were trailed westward in the 1850s from the Ohio val- ley and northwestern Mis- souri. Mostly, they were small flocks, five to 20 head each, bunched to- gether and driven along- side the wagon train. The first recorded fine- wooled French Merino sheep band trailed into Tehama County came in 1857, brought by the Rawson Brothers. They started with 7,000 head in Missouri and arrived with 4,000 head. Two years before they had trailed 10,000 sheep to central California with 24 men and five wagons. It was estimated between 75,000 and 100,000 sheep were trailed from Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, and Missouri between 1851 and 1861. After the Gold Rush, the market turned to wool. It was shipped by boat to San Francisco at $10 per ton, then by ship around the Horn, to the New Eng- land woolen mills. During the last half of the 1860s new mar- kets were found for breed- ing ewes trailed to the de- veloping ranches in the Rocky Mountain states. These drives were at their peak throughout the 1880s. In the 1860-70s sheep ranching on a large scale shifted from grassland and woodland ranges in the foothills to green meadows, timber feed and running streams in the high mountains dur- ing the summers; return- ing to the Sacramento Val- ley (hopefully) before the snow fell. For the next 100 years sheepmen moved their bands of sheep over the seven stock trails into the mountains. North, into the Sacramento River can- yon in Shasta and Sis- kiyou Counties; East, a trail north and around Mt. Lassen, the Belle Mill Trail and Stanford Ranch (Campbell Trail) into Mo- doc, Lassen and Plumas Counties. West, the trails out of western and south- western Tehama County to Mad River, the Yolla Bol- las, Lewiston and Weaver- ville in Mendocino and Trinity Counties. Can you picture the slow moving bands of bleating sheep, the herd- ers, their dogs and pack burros, churning up dust along the stock trails, through small hamlets and the unpaved (1915) streets of Red Bluff. 1861. The year of the drought. Six months with- out rain; by the 4th of Oc- tober, hard winds stirred up choking dust storms. Then the winter of 1861-62 was the most severe on re- cord. In November, rains settled in with severe flooding; livestock, build- ings, fences, bridges were destroyed. Deep snows lay frozen on the ground for weeks. The County Asses- sor reported 30,000 head of livestock died. The winter of 1872-73 was practically a repeat of the 1861-62 winter, with many sheep growers losing their entire flocks. Heavy snows remained on the ground for weeks. The Homestead Act, passed in 1862, autho- rized distribution of pub- lic lands in parcels of 160 acres to each settler, 320 acres in upland pastures. Farmers from the lower Sacramento Valley moved northward; others came from the mines; and the steady influx of settlers from the East by wagon trains, then later by rail- road. In December 1871 the railroad was completed north to Red Bluff. Up to that time, wool went out by wagon or river boat. Large warehouses were built along the tracks in Red Bluff, Proberta, Te- hama and Vina to store wool and grain to be shipped by train. Eight — horse or mule teams pulled wagons, often with trailers, loaded with sacks of wool or grain to the warehouses along the rail- road as well as those at the docks. Stockmen were so in- fluential in 1872 they per- suaded the legislature to pass the "No Fence Law", being relieved the burden of building fences. Sheep were turned loose, free to graze, in the winter season on the un- fenced ranges until the spring roundup. Then sheepmen and their herd- ers gathered the sheep into groups by brands. The ewes to be sheared and the young lambs marked and branded. The first two decades of the 1900s saw a decline in sheep numbers. Te- hama County was turning to more varied and com- plex farms. Mexican Land Grants had changed own- ers once or twice. The Los Molinos Land Company (1905), Maywood Colony (1891), Richfield (1910) and El Camino Irrigation Dis- tricts (1920s) were being developed. The 1929 stock market crash plunged the sheep growers into the depths of the Great Depression. Like one fellow said: "It's times like these that makes ya kick the covers at night." It was not until 1937 that a dollar could be made in the sheep busi- ness. Changes were made. Livestock truck transports were begin- ning to move the big bands of sheep to and from the mountain ranges. And World War II was approaching. The impact of World War II was felt everywhere — labor shortages, less- ening market demand for lamb (a generation of sol- diers fed mutton instead of lamb), synthetics cut- ting into the wool market. The following years have seen fluctuating prices and continuing complex problems; in- flated land values, higher taxes, increased recre- ational areas for the urban population, government involvement in agricul- ture, political programs, environmentalists, preda- tory animals, labor, inter- national relations and ex- ports. The large bands of sheep have vanished dur- ing the last 30 years. To- day (1994) there are ap- proximately 4,500 sheep in Tehama County. JEANBARTON The rise and fall of the sheep industry in Tehama County Thankyou! PLEASE RECYCLE THIS NEWSPAPER. DAVIS Prostate cancer is likely a topic every man over 45 has discussed with his doctor. Did you know that male dogs can get prostate cancer too? Fourteen percent of men will develop this type of cancer in their lives, but 99% will survive because of advances in available treatment options. These advancements are mak- ing their way into veteri- nary medicine as well, and one such example is the pi- oneering work of Dr. Bill Culp, VMD, DACVS, at the UC Davis Veterinary Medi- cal Teaching Hospital. Dr. Culp, a board-certi- fied surgeon who special- izes in interventional radi- ology, is conducting a clin- ical trial to evaluate a new procedure to treat prostate cancer in dogs. The treat- ment is similar to a pro- cedure in human medi- cine that has taken hold in the past few years for treatment of non-cancer- ous prostate enlargement. Known as prostatic trans- arterial embolization, the treatment is emerging as a minimally invasive al- ternative to other pros- tate cancer therapies. Ad- vanced imaging (CT and MRI scans) is performed, allowing an assessment of the prostate tumor and as- sociated blood supply. Once the blood supply has been mapped, the tumor is ac- cessed minimally inva- sively (interventional radi- ology techniques) utilizing fluoroscopic guidance (real time "x-rays"). Catheters are placed, and the blood supply to the tumor is identified. Material can then be in- jected into the blood ves- sels supplying the tumor, which causes a blockage of the vessels, thereby cut- ting off the blood supply and accompanying nutri- ents to the tumor. The size of the gland and tumor de- crease as cells die from lack of blood supply. Dr. Culp's procedure has been per- formed on six dogs to date, and the early results have been promising. One recipient of Dr. Culp's procedure is Kop- per, a 14-year-old Belgian Malinois from Tennessee. Kopper, who worked to protect his community for the majority of his life, is a retired K-9 officer that was brought to the University of Tennessee's (UT) veter- inary hospital last year for treatment of a paralyzed larynx and megaesopha- gus. While at UT, his pros- tate issues were discovered. Veterinarians there were familiar with Dr. Culp's clinical trial and referred Kopper's owners, Matt and Heather Thompson of Maryville, Tennessee, to UC Davis. Matt, a corpo- ral with the Blount County (TN) Sheriff's Depart- ment K-9 unit, along with Heather, loaded up his for- mer law enforcement part- ner and traveled the 2,500 miles to California to see Dr. Culp. Once at UC Davis, Kop- per was assessed by Dr. Culp and Dr. Carrie Palm, a veterinary nephrologist/ urologist at UC Davis. CT and MRI images of Kop- per's tumor showed signs consistent with a cancer- ous prostatic carcinoma. The images also showed appropriate vasculature for the embolization pro- cedure, meaning Kopper was a good candidate for the procedure. Dr. Culp, along with a colleague who performs similar proce- dures on humans, Dr. Craig Glaiberman, MD, success- fully performed Kopper's procedure. UC DAVIS Vet having success with prostate cancer treatment U.S. Department of Ag- riculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack announced re- cently that eligible produc- ers may now formally enroll in the Agriculture Risk Cov- erage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs for 2014 and 2015. The en- rollment period will end Sept. 30. "The extensive outreach campaign conducted by USDA since the 2014 Farm Bill was enacted, along with extending deadlines, is cen- tral to achieving an ex- pected high level of partic- ipation," said Vilsack. "We worked with universities to simplify these complex pro- grams by providing online tools so producers could explore how program elec- tion options would affect their operation in different market conditions; these tools were presented to al- most 3,000 organizations across the country. The Farm Service Agency also sent more than 5 million educational notices to pro- ducers nationwide and par- ticipated in over 4,880 ed- ucational events with more than 447,000 attendees. I am proud of the many com- mitted USDA employees who worked hard over the last several months to pro- vide producers support to help them make these im- portant decisions." The new programs, es- tablished by the 2014 Farm Bill, trigger financial pro- tections for agricultural producers when market forces cause substantial drops in crop prices or rev- enues. More than 1.76 mil- lion farmers have elected ARC or PLC. Previously, 1.7 million producers had enrolled to receive direct payments (the program re- placed with ARC and PLC by the 2014 Farm Bill). This means more farms have elected ARC or PLC than previously enrolled under previously administered programs. Nationwide, 96 percent of soybean farms, 91 percent of corn farms, and 66 per- cent of wheat farms elected ARC. 99 percent of long grain rice farms, 99 per- cent of peanut farms, and 94 percent of medium grain rice farms elected PLC. For data about other crops and state-by-state program elec- tion results go to www.fsa. usda.gov/arc-plc. Covered commodities under ARC and PLC in- clude barley, canola, large and small chickpeas, corn, crambe, flaxseed, grain sor- ghum, lentils, mustard seed, oats, peanuts, dry peas, rapeseed, long grain rice, medium grain rice (which includes short grain and sweet rice), safflower seed, sesame, soybeans, sun- flower seed and wheat. Up- land cotton is no longer a covered commodity. USDA Ag risk, price loss coverage enrollment underway COURTESYPHOTO Kopper, a 14-year-old Belgian Malinois who is a retired K-9officer, traveled 2,500miles from Tennessee to California to be enrolled in a clinical trial at UC Davis that successfully treated his prostate cancer. RUNNINGS ROOFING SheetMetalRoofing ResidentialCommercial • Composition • Shingle • Single Ply Membrane Ownerisonsiteoneveryjob ServingTehamaCounty 530-527-5789 530-209-5367 NoMoney Down! "NoJobTooSteep" " No Job Too Flat" FREE ESTIMATES CA. LIC#829089 STOVEJUNCTION The TheNorthState'spremiersupplierofstoves 22825 Antelope Blvd., Red Bluff 530-528-2221 • Fax 530-528-2229 www.thestovejunction.com Over 25 years of experience Tues-Sat9am-5pm• ClosedSun&Mon Now Carrying! GreenMountainGrills & Accessories Serving Butte, Glenn & Tehama Counties Smog Check (MOST CARS & PICK-UPS) 527-9841 • 195 S. Main St. starting at $ 29 95 + $ 8 25 certificate SERVICESATLOWERPRICES All makes and models. 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