Dairying was the choice Ray Trussell made and it was a good decision for him as well. Moreover dairying quickly became the dominant form of agriculture in San Pasqual Valley between 1890 and 1900 and it stayed that way until the City of San Diego condemned most of the land in trhe valley to resolve a water rights dispute in the late 50's. Nevertheless some neighbors were successful in other forms of farming. Notable among them was Lizzie Judson's husband, Fred Roberts. Fred made the larger part of his living dry-farming wheat and threshing wheat for others. This photo of "Wackerman's Thresher" sent to Mary Trussell by one of her Escondido boy friends, illustrates the awesome sort of machine and manpower required for mechanical threshing. Obviously it took quite a crew to run a machine like this one. Seventeen men are shown in this photograph. This machine may look old-fashioned by today's standards, but it's likely a much better version than the one Andrew Meikle first built in 1784. This one is steam driven and self-propelled. Quite a machine. One thresher like this could cover a great deal of territory.
