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country, and give the appearance of thrift and happiness, where now 

 their absence is indicative of negligence and discontentment. A good 

 garden is an index of a good farm — a key to agricultural prosperity. 

 Could we induce our farmers to cultivate gardens, we would have some 

 hopes that the day of burning straw and stubble had passed, and that 

 the time had come when a diversified and prosperous agriculture was 

 about to be inaugurated in our State. 



CALIFORNIA GRASSES. 



At the time of the great influx of people into California, her vast 

 plains were covered with wild oats, annually volunteering and producing 

 an abundance of food for stock the year round. Along the river bot- 

 toms not covered with timber the soil was well covered and sodded with 

 native nutritious grasses, So that the whole country was well calculated 

 for the purposes to which it had been most exclusively devoted — stock 

 raising. Cultivation has destroyed the oats on the plains and the grasses 

 on the river bottoms to such an extent that when not under crops, weeds 

 are the natural and almost the only product of the soil. The long dry 

 seasons recurring every summer kill out all ordinary varieties of grasses 

 and clovers, such as timothy, red top, red and white clover, etc., whose 

 roots do not extend deep enough into the soil to place them beyond the 

 effects of the annual drouths. Hence it has been a matter of great 

 moment to find and introduce some varieties of grasses that can be sub- 

 stituted for the original prevailing native grasses of the country. It was 

 very desirable to find varieties that would take deep root and thus become 

 perennial. Experiments have been going on by some of our enterprising 

 farmers and scientific men, encouraged and assisted by this Board, with 

 many different kinds, both native and foreign, but generally with but 

 poor success, the annual drouths proving too severe for a continuous 

 growth and even for perennial life, except as to one variety, the seed of 

 which was imported from Chile and hence called 



CHILE CLOVER, OR ALFALFA. 



This clover seems to be especially adapted to the peculiarities and 

 wants of the country. It has been thoroughly tested for years, both on 

 the rich alluvial soils of the river borders and on the higher lands of the 

 plains, and has proved satisfactorily successful in all localities. Its roots 

 strike deep into the soil, in the form of what we generally term tap roots. 

 On the borders of some of our rivers they have been known to penetrate 

 seventeen feet below the surface. On the uplands, deeply plowed and 

 well tilled, they will find constant moisture sufficient to produce rapid 

 growth the year round. For hay this clover, when cut in proper condi- 

 tion, when in bloom, is of good quality for stock of all kinds, and espe- 

 cially for milch cows. 



It will produce three and four crops a year — say in April, May, June 

 and July — averaging from a ton to a ton and a half at each cutting. 

 After the last crop it continues to grow rapidly, and furnishes a very 

 large amount of feed for stock, as pasturage, the balance of the year. 

 We have the testimony of good dairymen, to the effect that cows taken 

 from the native grasses, and pastured on fields of Chile clover, will 

 increase in the product of milk and butter, or cheese, from sixty to 



