490 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 
the greatest total weight is harvested; the quality, however, is in that 
case of course injured. 
During hay-making time (end of April to that of May) the weather is 
usually so dry that there is little difficulty about curing. There are no 
sudden thunder-storms to call for a hasty garnering of the hay. Some- 
times, indeed, a late shewer will give a superficial wetting to the shocks, 
necessitating their being seattered for drying; but with ordinary care 
in this respect there is rarely any excuse for damaged or musty hay. 
So hitle danger is there that injury from rains will occur after May, that 
the shocks are often ieft exposed for many weeks to the bleaching action 
of dew and sunshine. The regular practice, however, is to gather them 
into large rectangular ricks, built without much reference to protection 
from rain, but mainly with regard to the convenience for pressing into 
bales. This is mostly done by contract with gangs or “ pressers,” usu- 
ally consisting of four men with a wagon and press, who perambulate 
the country from June to October. These men generally take up their 
lodgings under a hut of bales, which is ali the protection needed at that 
season; and do their own cooking at some point outside of the ring of _ 
plowed ground with which, as a safeguard against fire, the ricks are 
circumscribed. Such hay-baling campaigns are sometimes chosen by 
persons needing a change from sedentary life as an opportunity for re- 
cruiting their health without expense, if not with much pecuniary advan- 
tage. 
Even in this country, but litle hay is handled in California without 
baling; and thus “bale-rope,” from cut bales, is the universally reeog- 
nized material for “tying up things,” from a bundle to a broken wagon. 
Of late years soft iron wire has, to a considerable extent, come into use 
for baling hay; so that to stumble over a bundle of discarded “ bale- 
wires ” in the back yard is not at all out of the ordinary range of events. 
Alfalfa.—Undoubtedly the most valuable result of the search after 
forage crops adapted to the California climate is the introduetion of the 
culture of alfalfa; this being the name universally applied to the variety 
of Lucerne that was introduced into California from Chili early in her 
history, differing from the European plant merely in that it has a tend- 
ency to taller growth and deeper roots. ‘The latter habit, doubtless 
acquired in the dry climate of Chili, is of course especially valuable in 
California, as it enables the plant to withstand a drought so protracted 
as to kill out even more resistant plants than red clover; as a substitute 
for the latter, it is diffienlt to overestimate the importance of alfalfa to 
California agriculture; which will be more and more recognized as a 
regular system of rotation becomes a part of the general practice. At 
first alfalfa was used almost exclusively for pasture and green-soiling 
purposes; but during the last three or four years alfalfa hay has be- 
come a regular article in the general market, occasional objections to its 
use being the result of want of practice in curing. On the irrigated 
lands of Kern, Fresno, and Tulare Counties, three and even four cuts of 
forage, aggregating to something like twelve to fourteen tons ef hay per 
acre, have frequently been made. As the most available green forage 
during summer, alfalfa has become an invaluable adjunct to ali dairy 
and stock farming, wherever the soil can, during the dry season, supply 
any moisture within two or three feet of the surface. 
Grasses.—Of the ordinary pasture and meadow grasses of Europe and 
the East, but a few have to any extent gone into cultivation. One of 
the most unsuited to the climate, viz., Kentucky blue grass, is carefully 
nurtured by daily sprinklings as the chief ingredient of lawns, for which 
the Eastern immigrant generally maintains a preference, often satisfied 
