210 TRANSACTIONS OP THE 



and it is very evenly distributed throughout every month in the year, 

 not one month having occurred during the last fourteen years in which 

 there has not been more or Less rain ; and the greatest amount of rain 

 which has fallen in any one month (July, eighteen hundred and fifty- 

 five) during that time being six and three tenths inches ; while on our 

 coast, at San Francisco, in the same time, there has been forty-eight 

 months, or two sevenths of each year, on an average, in which there 

 has been no rain at all ; and our most rainy month, January, eighteen hun- 

 dred and sixty-two, shows eighteen and fourteen one-hundredths inches, 

 or nearly three times the greatest amount shown in England. And 

 what is peculiarly striking and suggestive in this comparison is the fact 

 that our dryest months, namely June, July, August, September, and 

 October, are in England the wettest. In addition to the above, it may 

 be remarked, that during the dryest and pleasantest seasons in England 

 the atmosphere is loaded with moisture, and the sun's rays are much of 

 the time obstructed by clouds ; while in California, during the summer 

 and autumn months, the atmosphere contains but very little moisture, 

 and the soil is subjected to the unobstructed rays of a burning, sun. 



Under such a state of facts, is it not plain that the husbandman of 

 California must be careful how he draws his information from, or adopts 

 as a rule of action, " English agriculture," particularly as to the prepara- 

 tion of the soil and the time and manner of planting the crops ? 



Now, let us look for a moment at the rain tables and seasons of the 

 Atlantic States, as compared with our own. The average yearly amount 

 of rain, in all parts of the Atlantic slope, it will be observed by refer- 

 ence to the tables, is much greater than in our own State or in Eng- 

 land — the average at Sacramento being seventeen and sixty-two one- 

 hundredths inches ; at San Francisco, nineteen and ninety-one one-hun- 

 hundredths ; at Ipswich, near London, twenty-three and six one-hun- 

 dredths ; while the lowest average shown in the above table for the 

 Atlantic States is thirty and seven one-hundredths, at Detroit. And the 

 greatest is sixty-two and ten one-hundredths at Baton Eouge. 



The rain in the Atlantic slope, like that in England, is comparatively 

 evenly distributed through the year; but the greatest amount falls dur- 

 ing the spring and summer months, and the least during the autumn and 

 winter. There is one fact, however, which the above table for the At- 

 lantic States fails to show — the average of separate months not being 

 stated : that, although more rain falls in the year, or in any three cor- 

 responding consecutive months, yet drougtbs are more severe and of 

 more frequent occurrence than in England, the rains being heavier and 

 not so evenly distributed. And, again, the atmosphere of the summer 

 and autumn, though very moist as compared with that of California 

 during the same period, is still much dryer than that of England, not 

 being affected as that of England is by the ever present condensation of 

 moisture from the heated atmosphere which accompanies the Gulf 

 Stream and spreads over the western coast of Northern Europe. 



It may also be mentioned that the Atlantic slope is subject to extremes 

 of heat and cold, to which we of the Pacific, and particularly of Cali- 

 fornia, are strangers. How changed, then, to the agriculturist of Europe 

 or the Atlantic States are all things in California ! The seasoift entirely 

 unlike ; the rains, as to time and quantity, entirely different; the climate, as 

 a whole, a complete reverse of all he has experienced in either country. 

 Is it strange, then, that the universal verdict of the emigrants from 

 Europe or the Atlantic States, when they first arrived in California in 

 search for gold, was that the country w T as good for nothing aside from 



