212 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



such an extent, at least, as to render the business more certain and 

 remunerative, if not more inviting and profitable than elsewhere. 



What, then, is the reason in the premises ? Our soils, as admitted by 

 all, are not excelled for richness and durability, and for the peculiar 

 adaptation by composition to the growth of grain. As proof of this, 

 we have only to refer to the constant and almost universal good crops on 

 the same land, year after year, even with poor and unnatural cultiva- 

 tion, whenever favored with a sufficiency of moisture. This question of 

 moisture is the great question to the agriculturist in this country. 



Since we have a small amount of rain, comparatively, and that con- 

 fined almost exclusively to one half of the year, it is evident that, to 

 secure good crops, the seed must be sown at such time and the gi-ound 

 must be prepared in such manner as to secure the full benefit of such 

 rains. Time, then, is the first consideration. Our rainy seasons com- 

 mence in September, and during September, October, and November, 

 with scarcely an exception in the last fourteen years, (as will be seen by 

 reference to the foregoing rain tables,) the ground has received a suffi- 

 ciency of moisture to germinate the seed and bring forward the grain. 

 Then, too, the ground is warm, and the weather is as favorable for the 

 rapid growth of both top and roots of the young grain as in any of the 

 spring months. 



Then reason would teach us that the seed should be in the ground by 

 the first of December at least, if not by the first of November. " But," 

 says one of our farmers, " by the present system, although the ground 

 has, as a general thing, been wet enough to start and bring forward the 

 grain in November, yet there has been but two seasons in the last four- 

 teen (eighteen hundred and fifty-one and eighteen hundred and fifty- 

 Bine) in which there has been sufficient rain before the first of December 

 to enable the farmer to break up new ground, or stubble, preparatory to 

 Bowing." This we admit, and, in answer, would say that the fall of the 

 year is no time to break up new ground or plough stubble, if you desire 

 to secure a crop; and refer to the proposition above laid down, that, to 

 insure success, the gi'ound must be prepared in such manner as to secure 

 the full benefit of all the rains. And this is the second requisite consid- 

 eration ; and this requisite may, in our opinion, be invariably secured 

 by summer fallowing. Then, reason says — Summer fallow } T our grain 

 land. 



Now let us see what nature teaches, for reason and nature generally 

 go hand in hand, and the former should be so directed as to assist the 

 latter. When the Americans first came to this State, in eighteen hun- 

 dred and forty-eight, eighteen hundred and forty-nine, and eighteen hun- 

 dred and fifty, nearly all the land now used for grain raising was 

 annually covered with a luxuriant growth of wild oats, frequently at- 

 taining a height of from five to six feet, and producing a heavy yield of 

 grain, which matured in May and June, and fell'to the ground. In July 

 and August the sun dried the ground to such an extent as to fill the 

 surface with a perfect network of cracks and openings. Into these open- 

 ings, secure from the reach of stock, worked a sufficient quantity of 

 grain to re-seed the ground. The rains of September and October closed 

 up these openings, and the grain thus sown and covered received, with 

 the ground, the benefit of the first i*ains, and sprouted up. During the 

 following rainy season, while the ground was soft, the roots penetrated 

 the earth to a depth sufficient to receive the moisture until matured. 



And here we have natures system of grain farming in California — as 

 certain and regular as the seasons — fulfilling, as near as nature can, un- 



