STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 215 



valley land. The last winter drought has had no effect on the crops 

 ahout here. We have excellent crops." 



Honorable J. C. Sargent, of Marysvillc, Yuba County, says : 



" The yield of summer fallowed laud, to say the very least, is fifty per 

 cent in advance of that sown in the ordinary manner. About the only 

 wheat we have raised this year has been on summer fallow, but to barley 

 it has been of no advantage. This is not the fault of the system, how- 

 ever. The average amount of grain harvested per acre, in this county, 

 will not exceed three bushels — I mean all the grain sown." 



E. McDaniel, Assessor of Colusa County, says : 



"I have been farming in this county for ten years, and I speak for 

 this county only. For the first five years we sowed grain in the usual 

 w T ay, and our average of wheat was about from twenty to twenty-five 

 bushels per acre ; barley some better. For the last five years we have 

 been trying the experiment of summer fallowing some, and we raise 

 about double the amount of grain to the acre, and much better and 

 heavier grain. My experience is that we need all the season for grain 

 to make itself in. The earlier grain is sown in the fall the better." 



He is decidedly in favor of a plan for using some of the water of the 

 upper Sacramento River to irrigate the tillable land in Colusa County, 

 and says, " with this irrigating S3'stem in operation, we have the best 

 land for agricultural purposes in the world." 



Mr. James Mitchell, of Sutter County, says : 



" On new ploughed land we raise of barley from twenty-five to thirty 

 bushels to the acre. On summer fallowed, from thirty-five to forty. Of 

 wheat, from twenty-five and thirty to thirty-five." 



Mr. A. L. Chandler, of Nicolaus, Sutter County, says : 



"I should estimate the amount of grain raised in this neighborhood for 

 the past" few years to be about thirty bushels to the acre for summer fal- 

 lowed land, and about twenty for that sown in the ordinary way, or fully 

 one third in favor of the summer fallow sj^stem. The difference this year 

 (eighteen hundred and sixty-four) is even greater, for in most cases where 

 land was deeply summer fallowed, the yield is from one third to two thirds 

 in favor of this method." 



The following letter from Mr. Henry Caddis, of Yolo County, speaks 

 so well for itself, and presents the whole subject in so clear a light, that 

 we insert it entire : 



Grafton, Yolo County, ) 



July 5th, 1864. j 

 Mr. I. N. Hoag, Esq. : 



Dear Sir : — In compliance with the request contained in your circular, 

 I herewith submit a few facts and opinions derived from my experience 

 in regard to summer fallowing, as compared with land tilled in the ordi- 

 nary manner. During the past six years, I have prepared a portion of 

 my land for grain by this process, and the result has been an average of 



