STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 219 



"The amount of wheat and barley per acre raised in my neighbor- 

 hood for the year eighteen hundred and sixty-three, and a few years 

 previous, was about twenty bushels of wheat and twenty-five of barley, 

 upon land sown in the ordinary manner. The farmers of this county (at 

 least but very few of them) have not adopted the plan of summer fal- 

 lowing their land. The increase of yield, in my judgment, upon summer 

 fallowed land would be at least one quarter." 



Mr. Alexander Dennis, of Jenny Lind, Calaveras County, says : 



" The proprietors of four ranches in my immediate vicinity last year 

 worked over their land double the amount the}'" were accustomed to, and 

 the result has been that we who did so have raised from forty-five to 

 fifty bushels of grain to the acre, while adjacent ranches, worked in the 

 ordinary way, have raised scarcely enough to seed them. 



" From four years experience, my opinion is that on moist alluvial 

 soils of this State the better way is to plough very early, just as soon 

 as the rains of winter moisten the ground, and let it lay in the furrow 

 from three to five weeks, or more if possible, by which time the soil is 

 sufficiently aired and fertilized, then harrow once, or cross plough, and 

 sow and put in immediately. This mode has produced the finest results 

 in all my observations; and from what I can gather from agriculturists 

 on cereal or uplands, the results of such a course are nearly if not quite 

 equal to summer fallowing. The way I philosophize on it is that in one 

 week after the rainy season has set in, there is more of the elements of 

 fertilization precipitated to the soil in one week than in two months 

 during the summer. This, at any rate, is certain, that all, or nearly all, 

 vegetable fermentation has nearly subsided in three or four weeks from 

 the time the furrows are turned, or after the first rains, consequently 

 the air at the expiration of that time contains but little of the fertilizing 

 gases caused by such decay and fermentation, provided it rains during 

 the last week before sowing, and thus returns to the soil the full strength 

 of such fermentation. This mode, if producing good results, would save 

 the farmer the necessity of having large farms lay idle one year, in 

 order to institute summer fallowing; but, in my opinion, the day is not 

 far distant when summer fallowing on uplands for cereals must be re- 

 sorted to to raise anything like good crops. On bottom lands, the plan 

 above described, of fallowing one month or more, in my opinion, may be 

 sufficient. In my immediate vicinity there has been raised this year, 

 (eighteen hundred and sixty-four,) twenty thousand bushels of barley, 

 avei-aging over forty bushels to the acre, all of which lands were fal- 

 lowed. Other lands did not raise more than one ton of hay to the acre. 



" The land/lying between here and Stockton has not produced, in all, 

 this season, one quarter enough to seed it for next year. Most of the 

 farmers on those lands are of the order 1 first mentioned, (following in 

 the footsteps of their fathers and grandfathers,) and consider fallowing 

 all moonshine. I am inclined to think a few years like this will change 

 their views of the matter. 



" In conclusion, I will say that in all cases within my experience or 

 observation, summer fallowing, (or temporary, as above described,) has 

 produced fully double the grain on upland, and one third more on bottom 

 land, than similar soils ploughed and immediately put in." 



Circulars were sent to many other individuals residing in all parts of 

 the State, but the above are all the answers received. They represent 



