112 RURAL CALIFORNIA 



before, yielded scant sustenance to hundreds." Pas- 

 ture improvement became the general demand. The 

 necessity was conceived to be for perennial forage 

 plants which would hold life in the root to displace 

 the seed grasses, as the abundant annual plants were 

 commonly called. Even after the idea of summer 

 verdure on dry lands was abandoned, the hope 

 remained of securing plants which, though sere 

 above, could be started by the fall rains from the 

 roots and not be dependent on growth from seed. 



All these nutritious forage plants which finished 

 their life courses in a single year, and there was a 

 multitude of them representing many botanical fam- 

 ilies, were held at first to be native, although some 

 of the most conspicuous and best of them were not 

 indigenous but introduced, either with intent or by 

 accident, by the Spaniards. Among these were wild 

 oats (Avena fatua), bur clover (Medicago denticu- 

 lata), alfilerillas (Erodium cicutarium and moscha- 

 tum) and others of less moment and value. Some of 

 these have advanced from California into the interior 

 grazing states and have made a good record. 



Effort and enterprise to secure perennials began 

 with the pioneers who sent for seed of plants which 

 figured in the permanent pastures in all parts of 

 the world whence they had come. Subsequently, the 

 Agricultural Experiment Station pursued the search 

 broadly and systematically from the very beginning 

 of its activities in 1875. Actually hundreds of peren- 

 nial grasses and forage plants have been introduced 

 during the last seventy years. 



