8 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



REPORT 



OP THE 



STATE BOARD OF AGIUCULTURE TO THE GOYERMI. 



To His Excellency George C. Perkins, Governor of California : 



Dear Sir: In handing to you the Annual Report of the State 

 Board of Agriculture, and the accompanying Transactions of the State 

 Agricultural Society, we have reason to feel grateful to Providence 

 for the favorable results of the past year's labors to the agriculturists 

 of the State. The beginning of the year was most unfavorable, and 

 did not promise well to the producers in scarcely any of the depart- 

 ments of agricultural industry. The rains of last winter were very 

 light in the first part of the season, and wet the soil down so little 

 that the early sown grain on dry sown and summer fallowed land 

 was considerably damaged by the succeeding long term of dry weather. 

 Nor was the soil sufficiently moistened to enable farmers to prosecute 

 plowing of land not summer fallowed till a time when the rainy sea- 

 son is generally nearly passed, and until it was late in the season to 

 put wheat into the ground with hope that it would produce even a 

 medium crop. When the rains did come, they were so heavy and 

 continuous that another term of waiting became necessary before the 

 soil could be cultivated and the seed sown and left in fair condition. 

 Indeed, much wheat was sown on soil too wet and too cloddy to 

 inspire hope of a moderate yield, but, under the circumstances, to 

 wait longer would have been equivalent to abandoning the crop alto- 

 gether. 



On the first of March last the prospects were anything but encour- 

 aging to the farmers of the State. That an average crop of wheat 

 would be harvested was not generally believed, and the outlook did 

 not warrant a hope that we would be able to obtain an average price 

 for what we might have to export. The wine interest had hardly 

 began to emerge from the depressed condition that it had been in for 

 a decade of years. Wool was low — so low, in fact, that many sheep 

 owners felt an anxiety to get their sheep off their hands at most any 

 price, and could see nothing but a continual struggle with hard times 

 in the future. Hops bore but a nominal price, and could not be dis- 

 posed of except at ruinous figures. 



Potatoes, beans, corn, and indeed nearly everything the farmer pro- 

 duced, was a drug in the markets of the State. Such were the farmer's 

 prospects in the spring and early summer, and they did not improve 

 much till the summer was well passed. The wheat crop turned out 

 better than Was expected at the time of seeding, but the yield was 

 only middling. The early spring growth was rank and rapid, and 

 at one time a heavy crop was indicated, but heavy dews at night and 



