120 RURAL CALIFORNIA 



"Natural Wealth of California" (1868) gives the fol- 

 lowing picture : 



"When California became first known to Ameri- 

 cans the face of the country was nearly everywhere 

 covered with wild oats. Though parched, in the long 

 summer, the grain held firmly in its capsule, giving 

 good pasture. The wild oat has bearded projections 

 with bended joints like the legs of a grasshopper. 

 The first rains limber out the joints which, being 

 again dried by the sun, shrink, causing the berry to 

 jump about, giving it wide distribution over the 

 land and falling into cracks in the soil is preserved 

 in these natural receptacles from birds, squirrels 

 and other animals." 



If hay could be made of wild oats which have par- 

 ticular ability to hold on from year to year without 

 perennial roots, the question arose as to why barley 

 and wheat could not be sown to cut for hay when con- 

 tinued haying of wild oats took away the seed and re- 

 duced the yield too low. Therefore, the problem of 

 how to get hay in California remained settled until 

 the desirability of alfalfa was fully demonstrated 

 and it became the chief hay of the State. 



Of the relative desirability of hay from grains cut 

 green and from timothy and other meadow grasses, 

 the only enduring opposition to the former was put 

 up by the quartermasters of the United States Army, 

 and this existed until very recently. When the con- 

 tinued occupation of the Philippines made it neces- 

 sary to ship hay across the Pacific, it took some ef- 

 fort by local congressmen to get Pacific Coast con- 



