AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 141 



clouded by doubt. Will Europe lose its thirst for 

 malt liquors and will the United States find more 

 than enough barley in the northwestern states, as 

 prohibition advances, and California be excluded by 

 distance from American consuming centers? How 

 far can local feed uses of barley be increased beyond 

 the present one-third of the product which is now 

 consumed in that way? Such questions are unan- 

 swerable. It is fair, however, to conclude that what- 

 ever dramatic situations may arise, barley, because 

 of its winter growth which corn refuses, its short 

 season and drought resistance with which wheat can- 

 not compete, and because of its wider range of adap- 

 tations and greater resistance to rust than oats, will 

 remain the most popular grain among California 

 growers to the limit of its profitability. 



Corn came from Mexico with the padres in 1769. 

 They soon found that wheat, barley and oats were 

 hardy against frosts, would make their chief growth 

 during, the rainy season and were easier to produce 

 than corn which had to be kept o-ut of frost by spring 

 planting, and therefore, was pushed into the dry 

 season to make its growth, which it resented by curl- 

 ing its young leaves while the winter-growing cereals 

 were spreading fiat blades to early maturity. The 

 padres soon learned, of course, that on the lower 

 moister lands, like those southward from the San 

 Gabriel Mission (which was their greatest granary), 

 corn could be brought through without irrigation, 

 but not without more work than winter-growing 

 cereals required. Therefore, the padres did not count 



