30 RURAL CALIFORNIA 



ter whence they came, concluded at first that Cali- 

 fornia was not a farming country because the soil 

 either could not sustain permanent verdure or would 

 not keep plants green just at the time of the year 

 when the landscape should be green. 



These first general conclusions about the agricul- 

 tural unsuitability of California were not seriously 

 shaken by the observation of other newcomers who 

 sought the gold after visits at the Missions, ranchos 

 of the Spaniards who had gained Mexican land grants 

 or the farms and gardens of the Americans who had 

 established themselves before the gold discovery. At 

 all these places these visitors saw in the dry season 

 nothing green except alongside ditches in which wa- 

 ter was running, and the trees and plants were largely 

 unfamiliar to them. The demonstration that strange 

 plants would grow in a way strange to them was taken 

 to be a demonstration that away from these ditches, 

 which could be provided of course only in a small 

 way, the land would not support plant growth and 

 surely would not grow those crops indispensable to 

 American farming as they knew it. It is true that 

 ample evidence was at hand at the Missions and else- 

 where that the country would grow live-stock without 

 irrigation. However, that fact was not very signifi- 

 cant, for cattle-ranging was not then fully recognized 

 as a phase of American agriculture and a piece of land 

 with cattle-pens but no barns, hay-stacks nor cow- 

 sheds could not be counted a farm. They blamed 

 the deficiency chiefly to the soil, which was obvi- 

 ously that of a desert and not of a farming country. 



