Load of Hay on the Ray Trussell Ranch, 1906

This would have been a typical scene on any dairy in the valley at the turn of the century. Ray Trussell Sr. standing with a pitch fork in front of a wagon Load of hay recently loaded. Sitting up on the hay from left to right are Edgar Brown, Stanley Trussell, Wilmer Trussell, Rebecca Trussell and an unknown friend of the family. Like all the original dairies in San Pasqual, the Trussells raised their own feed for the dairy cows. Chances are Ray has been preparing to feed the cows a little alfalfa. From here he will take the wagon around to the outside of the corral so he can toss the loose alfalfa into the mangers from which the cows will eat it. Obviously this was in a time before hay was baled and it looks as if a pile of hay was substantially more unstable in those days. This operation was much the same 60 years later except much of the hay was grown and baled in Imperial Valley and Ray's son, Stanley, used a tractor to pull the wagon ... the Judsons continued to use draft horses for this purpose because of difficulty in getting traction with a tractor.