AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 137 



1857 being 5,980,485 bushels, while the whole United 

 States in 1850 produced only 5,167,000 bushels. 



Early Californians, both Spanish and American, 

 took to barley instead of oats because the former 

 was easier to grow in the more arid parts of the 

 State, where the early agriculture was undertaken. 

 This was owing both to acceptance of aridity and to 

 the greater resistance of barley to rust. However, this 

 was not the full explanation. By virtue of its kernel 

 contents and its adhering chaff, barley is really the 

 only rival of oats for stock feeding, both in nutritive- 

 ness and digestibility. Although in this conclusion 

 Californians merely add their experience to that of 

 the ancient Mediterranean peoples, they had a long 

 struggle to convince others of the stock-feeding value 

 of barley. It took a full half century, for instance, 

 to convince the quidnuncs of the United States 

 Army that barley was a wholesome cereal food for a 

 government mule and if it had not been for the acci- 

 dent of feeding this animal in the Philippines with 

 supplies from the Pacific Coast, where barley was 

 abundant and oats were shy, it is probable that to 

 this day barley would be banished from the official 

 mule menu. The vindication of barley must now be 

 considered indisputable, for both the victorious grand 

 champions from the University of California Farm 

 at the Chicago International Show in 1917 had bar- 

 ley as their chief grain feed. 



Excellent barley is grown in the Rocky Mountain 

 states, and to the northeastward, in North Dakota, 

 Minnesota, Wisconsin and in Canada. In this region 



