180 EESOUECES OF CALIFORNIA. 



season of the year, and horses not employed are usually turned 

 out into the open plain. The hay of Ohio is cut in cultivated 

 fields, from tame grasses ; that of California is made of wild 

 oats and indigenous grasses, which are grown in the open 

 valleys. 



The haying season comes about the first of May. The old 

 adage, that "you must make hay while the sun shines," does 

 not apply in California, for here the sun shines all the time, 

 and the haymaker has ordinarily no fear of rain. It happened, 

 however, in 1860, that a considerable amount of hay was spoilt 

 by the late rains in June. The whole process of haymaking in 

 California is managed by machinery. It is cut with the ma- 

 chine-mower, raked together with horse-rakes into cocks or 

 windrows, and finally the cocks are hauled together on hay- 

 sleds which load themselves by slipping under the cocks. The 

 hay is not turned by hand, nor is the field raked by hand. 

 The hand must be used, however, when wagons are to be 

 loaded or stacks built. Hay is usually cured in the cock or 

 windrow. It is not necessary to turn it by hand, as is cus- 

 tomary in the Eastern states. One turning and one day in the 

 sun are enough, w^hen it is raked together and is ready for the 

 stack or the mow. 



In Ohio, a good field of timothy will yield four tons of hay 

 to the acre ; in California, the wild oat stands so thick in a few 

 places as to yield as much, but the average crop is not over a 

 ton to the acre. The principal hay counties of the state are — 

 San Joaquin, which in 1860 made 37,000 tons; Santa Clara 

 and Yolo, 18,000 each; Sonoma, 17,000; Yuba, 14,000; Sac- 

 ramento, 13,000 ; and Contra Costa, 11,000. Very little maize- 

 fodder is used in the state. 



Tame grasses occupy, at the present time, a very small place 

 in the agriculture of California. Not one-tenth of the farms 

 in the state have an acre of cultivated pasture ; and even in 

 the largest farms, containing from three hundred to a thou- 

 sand acres under plough, it is rare to find a field of timothy, 

 clover, or alfalfa. The last-mentioned will probably become 



