IRRIGATION PRACTICE AND HIGHWAYS 327 



cattle trails. The early American pioneers asserted 

 their preference for wheeled vehicles but as they sel- 

 dom desired to stay long in a place and were even 

 doubtful of their desire to remain long anywhere in 

 the country,, they were content to move across the 

 landscape on any streak of mud or dust which would 

 not upset them. As their early activities were chiefly 

 along the foothills and across the mountains and the 

 upsetting of a stage or a packed animal was serious, 

 road-building on the grades became first imperative. 

 California became famous for mountain roads while 

 on her valley highways it was a pardonable exaggera- 

 tion to say that vehicles could pass unseen because 

 of the depth of mud in the rainy season and the den- 

 sity of the dust in the dry. There were, of course, 

 exceptions where the nature of the soil worked for 

 good roads and where the supervisors of a county 

 were honest, but generally the people were heavily 

 taxed for decades for road purposes and still had no 

 roads worth the name. It was not until 1895 that 

 the legislature resolved to install system and method 

 in road work and created a Bureau of Highways 

 consisting of three commissioners to proceed toward 

 that end. In its report of investigation this Bureau 

 declared that California had during eleven years, 

 1885 to 1895, expended eighteen million dollars for 

 highway purposes and had nothing but "deplorable 

 roads because the money had been wastefully and 

 injudiciously expended/' The Bureau of Highways 

 of 1895 designed a system of State highways, pre- 

 scribed methods of construction and upkeep and was 



