ABSTRACT
In the distribution of the public domain, extraordinary developments in farm practices and in public policy toward natural resources occurred in the area beyond the Rockies in the years just preceding 1860. Mormon tithing houses came to be the equivalent of communitarian or co-operative marketing and exchange centers for farmers and other business groups. Farmers brought not only their tithes but also their surpluses, to exchange for food, clothing, household goods, or other items that came in from other farmers or household industries as tithes or as surpluses for exchange. The legacy of the California land claims was a concentrated pattern of ownership of land, a small number of farms in relation to the population, large bonanza farms, and a high proportion of farm laborers and tenants. By 1859, California was raising a surplus of grain not easy to market, and its farmers were harvesting the highest average yield of wheat per farm in the country.
