CALIFORNIA-HER AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES.

BY HI. D. DUNN, SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA.

THE agricultural resources of California are of such magnitude, of so varied a nature, and, when properly developed, will be so valuable, not only to the States and Territories lying contiguous on the Pacific slope, but to the United States as a nation, that it seems strange a more general knowledge of the same has not been heretofore attained by the American people. Settled originally, on the part of the Americans, by a few pioneers, whose frontier habits of life were of a wandering nature, the vast mines of agricultural wealth contained in the soil (other than those partially developed at the missions) were overlooked, and the country, aside from occasional river bottoms and a few small valleys on the coast, was deemed sterile and unsuitable for culture. Walled in between the Sierra Nevadas and the Coast range of mountains, the great interior valleys and plains, producing immense quantities of wild oats and indigenons grasses, were valued only for the purpose of cattle raising, large numbers of the latter being slaughtered for their hides and tallow, which were sold to the few trading vessels that yearly visited the coast. At the missions, the first of which had been located in 1769 and 1770, a few small tracts of arable land had been cultivated, the soil producing bounteously all the smaller cereals, while the grape, olive, fig, pomegranate, and other semi-tropical fruits, brought by the priests from Mexico and Spain, flourished as if in their native soil. Such was the condition of California when war broke out between the United States and Mexico in 1846, and such, in great measure, it continued to be until the necessities of a large mining population, in 1849, induced a more thorough and extensive search into the capabilities of her soil and climate. So ignorant were Californians of the agricultural resources of their State, as late as 1852, it was the general opinion of the people that, although immensely rich in minerals, it would always be impossible to support her then existing population without importing the greater part of the necessaries of life; that while there were a few valleys of undoubted productiveness, a vast proportion of the soil outside of the mineral regions was only suitable for the production of indigenous grasses for the support of cattle. With this mistaken view of her capabilities, many thousands of people left the country after having been successful in mining. Other thousands preferred to live without their families and the comforts of home while gold digging, under the idea that the mines, becoming soon worked out, with the staples of living imported, there would be no inducement to settle permanently in the State. These ideas were also propagated by returned adventurers in the Atlantic States, and greatly deterred the immigration of families, who were much needed to form a valuable and settled population in the agricultural districts.

SOIL AND CLIMATE.

The State of Califorma extends along the North Pacific from 32° 20′ to 42 north latitude, and from 114° to 124° 33′ west longitude. Its greatest length is about 760 miles, in a northwest and southeast direction, averaging about 260 miles in width. A large portion of the country is mountainous or hilly, the great Sierra Nevada mountain range extending along its eastern

boundary, and the Coast range and kindred spur mountain ranges along the greater part of the western border on the shores of the Pacific. These two ranges of mountains connect by spurs in the north on the border of Oregon, in Siskiyou county, and again in the southern part of the State, near Santa Barbara county. Between these mountain ranges lie the great Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys, extending north and south for hundreds of miles, one valley being a virtual continuation of the other. These valleys are intersected by numerous streams, which flow from the mountains, and, combining, form the Feather, Yuba, Sacramento, American, Stanislaus, Tuolumne, Calaveras, Merced, San Joaquin, and other rivers. Some of these are navigable for light-draught steamers at all seasons for hundreds of miles above their mouths. The Sierras, along the foot-hills, contain many small valleys, which produce abundant crops of cereals, but are more especially adapted to the cultivation of the grape, olive, almond, and other kindred fruits. The Coast range is also penetrated by numerous fertile valleys, some of them, in the southern portion of the State, being quite large.

California has virtually but two seasons, viz: the summer, or dry season, and the winter, or wet season. The former generally commences in April, and continues until October, very little, if any, rain falling in the interval. The rain fall during the year varies somewhat in different localities; but throughout the State, in the few places where rain gauges were kept, the general average since 1850 has been from ten to forty-nine inches. With a fall of but ten inches, the result is a drought that destroys the larger portion of all crops, and, as was the case in 1864, insures the destruction of from one-third to one-half of the cattle and sheep that range in the lower valleys of the State. The forty-nine inches, in the interior, where the land is low and level in vast tracts, produce immense floods, as in the winter of 1861 and 1862. A fall of twentytwo inches of rain insures a very good harvest, while an excess of that quantity admits of the sowing of a greater breadth of land, which, with the fertilizing sediments deposited on the low lands, more than compensates for the damage done by floods to house, barn, and fences.

The climate of California varies greatly in different places. To describe it properly, it is necessary to divide the State into districts, either of which pos sesses a climate that differs materially from the others. For this purpose I make four districts, and name them, viz: North coast, south coast, interior valleys, and Sierra Nevada districts.

The north coast district includes the coast valleys and mountain ranges north of Point Conception, and is on an average forty miles wide. Its proximity to the Pacific ocean gives it a peculiar climate, the winters being free from excessive cold, snow rarely falling on elevations of 3,000 feet, or the temperature as low as thirty degrees Fahrenheit. Since 1850 there have been quite a number of winters when no snow has fallen, and there were only slight hoar frosts in December and January. The more hardy vegetables, such as the potato, cabbage, beet, turnip, cauliflower, parsnip, radish, &c., grow through the winter, and are gathered in every month of the year. Strawberries ripen in the open air in March, and the first cherries sometimes as early as the middle of April. Barley has been cut in the latter part of the same month, but more generally about the 15th of May. The greater part of the first hay crop is gathered early in April, and wheat is cut in some favored localities by the 15th of May. The weather during summer is comparatively cool, with occasional short heated terms, during which the thermometer ranges as high as from eighty to eightyfive, the nights, however, being pleasantly cool. The general temperature from April to November ranges from fifty-five to seventy degrees. From May to November this section of California is visited by strong northwest winds, which blow with great regularity from noon to sunset, when they die away, to be renewed the next day. These winds are often attended by dense fogs, which

prevail from 4 p. m. to 8 a. m. When these fogs first strike the coast they generally contain a great amount of moisture, and at times resemble a Scotch mist. This moisture is precipitated mostly on the hillsides and valleys next to the ocean, and keeps grass enough for feed until late into autumn, making this section peculiarly valuable for stock and sheep raising, and for dairy purposes. The dampness, however, injures the quality of wheat, barley, and oats exposed to its influence, and they become less dry and of a deeper red or brown color than the same varieties of grain raised in the eastern valleys of the district and other portions of the State.

The south coast district.-In this section the winters are still milder than further north, frost rarely occurring, while snow is seldom, if ever, seen, except on the tops of the highest mountains. The orange, lemon, lime, and citron are gathered from November to March, while green corn is to be had, where the ground is irrigated, from the first of May until Christmas. Generally, less rain falls in this district than in the others, but the total fall is distributed over a longer space of time, viz., from the first of October until May, a few showers falling, in some years, as late as July. In summer there are no strong northwest winds and no sea-fogs, such as prevail further north, while the temperature is also more equable, and ranges from sixty to seventy-five degrees, with occasional light dry fogs. There are sometimes periods of what may properly be termed "burning" weather, which do considerable damage to vegetation in very dry seasons. These, however, come at very long intervals, four and five years sometimes intervening, and generally after the main crops have been harvested. Interior valleys district. The winters of this district are somewhat colder and of longer continuance than those of either of the foregoing sections. The strongest frost, however, rarely produces ice of the thickness of an eighth of an inch, and vegetation is seldom more than two weeks behind that of the north coast district, oranges ripening in the open air as late as February. There is, however, a noted difference in the dry season, summer following close on the heels of winter, a very short spring intervening.. The weather frequently attains its maximum heat about the middle of May, and continues sometimes, with slight intermissions, until October. This heat, however, is devoid of moisture, and resembles more the air from a hot oven than the same degree of heat found in any of the Atlantic States. Although the thermometer frequently ranges as high as 100 degrees, and in some portions of the valleys even to 113 and 115 degrees in the shade, the heat is borne by man and beast with less distress or danger than eighty-five degrees in the north coast district, or the same degree in the States east of the Mississippi river. In some portions of the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys the heat is greatly mitigated by the northwest winds of the coast, which come through gaps in the Coast range mountains. These winds lose their moisture in crossing the mountains, and are tempered, as it were, by heat in passing over the valleys. There is, therefore, little or no abatement of heat experienced when they strike the foot-hills of the Sierra Nevadas, which gives that portion of the district a steady and equable temperature that is in the highest degree favorable for the best development of the vine, which cannot be found in such perfection elsewhere. This peculiarity of climate promises, in a few years, when vineyard proprietors acquire proper experience in wine making, to produce some of the finest qualities of wine known any where in the civilized world.

Sierra Nevada district.―This district comprises the hillsides and numerous valleys in that range of mountains above the altitude of 1,200 feet. The winters are quite mild, although snow falls to a very great depth in places above 3,000 feet elevation. These immense deposits of snow form the reservoirs of the numer ous rivers that water the large valleys of the interior, and without which the former would become dry, or nearly so, during half of the summer. These snows gradually melt during the summer, but large quantities on the northern slopes

of the highest peaks continue from year to year, and are seldom entirely dissolved during the seasons of greatest drought. The great fall of snow in winter is unaccompanied by any severe degree of cold, it being quite difficult at times to obtain ice over an inch thick at elevations of about 5,000 feet above the sea. The way ice of sufficient thickness is had in these regions is by making ponds of water, in which a thin sheet of ice is formed; more water is then let on the surface of the ice and frozen, and the process is repeated until the thickness of the sheet is considered suitable to cut for consumption in the summer season. The Sierra Nevadas really comprise two parallel ranges of mountains, with numerous narrow valleys lying between. These valleys are very fertile, producing wheat and potatoes up to an altitude of about 6,000 feet. The crops, at that elevation, are sometimes cut off by late spring and early autumn frosts; but enough is generally produced of these staples to support, in part, quite a large population, while the grass lands are able to feed a much larger quantity of stock than will probably ever be needed for local consumption. During the summer the climate of this district is probably the most pleasant in California. The days are temperately warm, and the nights cool enough to make a moderate quantity of bed clothing desirable. For months at a time there is an almost cloudless sky. The vegetation in the higher portions of this district is always green, presenting a most pleasant sight to travellers who have journeyed across the parched valleys of the interior. The agricultural products of this section are relatively of higher value than in the others, because of the proximity of mining settlements, which afford a ready market, at only a small expense for transportation.

It is difficult to describe properly the soil of California, which is excellent for grain-growing everywhere, but varies greatly in appearance and composition in different portions of the State. All the valley lands which have been tried have proved well adapted to agricultural pursuits, and, so far as known, the bald hilltops, cultivated in very rainy seasons, have yielded fair crops of grain. In describing the climate of the different districts, I have given a description of the usual weather in ordinary seasons. Most of the sections described I have knowledge of from a personal experience of over seventeen years. That the winters of California are very mild, is self-proved by the semi-tropical fruits grown in the open air, such as the orange, lemon, and citron, which ripen in the northern portions of the State in January and February. The advantages of such a climate over the severe frosts and snows of winters in the Atlantic States and northern Europe are thus at once apparent, and need no argument to convince an unbiased mind. The freedom from rain for six consecutive months in summer admits of the cultivation of larger tracts of land in small grain, to each man employed, than in the Atlantic States, as the crops can and often do lie three months in the field, after cutting, before they are threshed and housed ready for sale.

POPULATION.

The entire population of the State is estimated, by the best judges, (in the absence of reliable census returns,) at from 400,000 to 500,000 persons. Of these there are about 60,000 Chinese, who are engaged in mining and railroad building. The population of San Francisco is 130,000; that of other towns in the State, not engaged in farming pursuits, say 50,000; and whites engaged in mining, teaming, commerce, milling, and other kindred employments, 50,000 more-making a total of 290,000 persons who are consumers, and not producers. This leaves, at the highest estimate, about 210,000 persons unaccounted for, who form our agricultural population. Deduct from this number the women and children, and there are probably not 100,000 adults directly engaged in agricul tural pursuits in California. With this comparatively small number of farmers we are fast taking a high rank in the list of wool, wheat, and barley-growing States,

while our production of wine this year exceeded that of all the other States of the Union combined. That the soil must be of an exceedingly fertile character, and the climate peculiarly favorable to agricultural pursuits, will be apparent when it is considered that this great interest has been virtually created since 1852. Up to that time not one tithe of the flour, barley, and some other staples consumed, were produced in the State; while for our fruit, sheep, hogs, and poultry we had to rely mainly upon importations from Oregon, the Hawaiian and other islands, and New Mexico. At the present time the home demand takes but a very small portion of some of the great staples produced, as California also supplies Nevada, Arizona, and portions of Utah and Montana Territories, besides exporting vast quantities of wheat, barley, oats, &c., by sea to different portions of the globe. When we consider that such great results have been attained through the labor of a comparatively small population, and that at the present time not one-tenth of the arable land in the State is under cultivation, the magnitude which the agricultural interests of California may assume, with a population sufficient to properly develop her resources, looms up with a grandeur greatly exceeding that of any other State in the Union. No other farming population in the Union have had to contend with the difficulties that have continually beset our people, and which have only within the last year or two been removed. Until within a comparatively short period a settler could scarcely find a tract of fertile land unoccupied that was not claimed under an old grant from the Mexican government. The boundaries of these grants being indefinite, and clouding the title to ten times the quantity of land called for, the settler had to risk what improvement he might put on the land to the mercy or caprice of the claimant of the grant. Under the ruling of our court claimants had the power to dispossess all parties, within the boundaries of which so small a portion of the land was granted, while awaiting survey. The grant having been nearly all definitely located and the public land surveyed, this condition, in respect to titles, has been changed, and parties wishing to settle on public lands, or to purchase of grant owners, can do so with a feeling of security not before known.

CEREALS.

In the production of some varieties of small grain California has no rival in the other States of the Union, and, all the circumstances attending cultivation. duly considered, no superior in the world. In the earlier years of grain-growing the average product of wheat was between 60 and 70 bushels to the acre, in favorable seasons. Instances were common where large fields of from 60 to 100 acres averaged 90 to 100 bushels, and selected acres as high as 120 bushels. At the present time the average yield of wheat, properly sowed in ploughed land, is about 40 bushels per acre. A slovenly systein of cultivation has, however, been introduced in the State, which has been in great favor with farmers. The majority of cultivators throughout the State have pursued the following plan, which not only gives a very small return for the land cropped, but also exhausts it of its fertility at a rapid rate: The new land is generally scratched or broken up by ploughing from three to five inches deep. Grain is sown, say wheat, which yields from 40 to 60 bushels to the acre, if the season is a fair one. crop having been garnered, cattle, horses, sheep, or hogs are turned in on the stubble to fatten on the heads of grain that have been left or scattered by the reaper when cutting. When the feed gets poor the animals are removed, and the ground is harrowed with a light cultivator, but in the majority of instances by simply dragging brush over it. Our farmer now considers his field as sown, and awaits harvest time to reap the rewards of his labors. If the season is a fair one, the land produces probably 25 bushels of wheat. In many cases the process is renewed, and another but smaller crop harvested from the same ground, say from 12 to 15 bushels, in the third year. This process of cropping the land

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