298 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



On liglit and sandy soils, it renders the surface more impacted, and thus 

 j^rcvouts evaporation, while on clay soils it more thoroughly comminutes 

 and levels the surface, packing the earth about the seed. 



Early sowing will almost always insure a natural and vigorous growth, 

 and as the young grain sprouts into life with the first rains, the most 

 unpractised eye can discover a difference in the color of grain sown 

 upon fallow ground as compared with that which is sown upon land 

 tilled in the ordinary manner. The soil has evidently been improved 

 by an invisible but effectual process. It has drawn fertility from the 

 heavens, it has absorbed carbonic acid, and its mineral constituents have 

 been freed by the ox^'gen of the atmosphere. As the grain approaches 

 maturity it grows with great rapidit}', and resists the attacks of extreme 

 drought. In harvesting grain the writer is convinced, from his own 

 experience, that it should not be allowed to remain until it is dcadrlpe^ 

 but should be cut when the straw contains sufficient sap to bring the 

 grain to maturit}", or when the kernels begin to glaze. Wheat that is 

 harvested in this condition is unquestionabl}' superior for making flour, 

 and the straw contains much more alimentary and saccharine matter, 

 being nearly as good for feeding purposes as hay. On the other hand, 

 if cut too green, the grain will not only be deficient in weight and color, 

 but in nutritive qualities, which in well matured plants are mostl}' con- 

 fined to their seeds. The straw will be of better qualit}', but at the 

 expense of the grain. 



In this Ayj climate, the emploj'uient of water for irrigation naturally 

 eno;ao-es the attention of the tillers of the soil. The writer is unable to 

 give any rules u]jon this subject, having had little experience in the mat- 

 ter; but there is no doubt that those who possess the means of irrigation 

 have a great advantage over those who do not, and that in ver}^ dry 

 seasons irrigation would render summer fallowing more efficacious. The 

 waters of rain and snow, as they pass through the air, absorb fertilitj', 

 and as they pass over the sui'face of the earth, bring with them finely 

 comminuted and fertilizing particles 'of soil. But irrigation also has its 

 disadvantages. The floods bury up and carry with them a large quan- 

 tity of the seeds of noxious weeds, and Avhen water is allowed to stand 

 any length of time, so as to become stagnant, chills and fever, and other 

 kindred diseases, are the almost inevitable result. The writer ventures 

 the assertion that during a period of twelve years consecutively, from 

 eighteen hundred and fiftj^-two to eighteen hundred and sixty-three, 

 inclusive, remunerative croj^s of grain might have been raised in nearly 

 all of our upland plains, without irrigation, b}' a more judicious system 

 of tillage than that which is now too commonly practised ; and he is 

 confident that even under the brazen skv of California, harvests can be 

 produced that would be unsurpassed b}" those of the plains of Southern 

 Eussia or the Delta of Egypt. At first thought, it might appear as 

 absurd to summer-fallow land in order to i^nard aij;ainst drou<i;ht as it 

 would be to irrigate land in order to make it dry; but such is the effect, as 

 experience has fully demonstrated. If moisture is so indispensable to 

 vegetable life as is generally believed, whence, then, does grain sown on 

 a naked fallow derive moistui'e in times of great drought ? This is an 

 interesting question, to which the writer has not yet heard a satisfactory 

 solution. vSome think it is caused by capillaiy attraction from the sub- 

 soil ; others, by absorption from the atmosphere; but the fact having 

 been established b}' tlie concurrent testimony of all who have tried it, it 

 is of comparatively little moment whether we know the why and the 

 "wherefore of its operation or not. The writer's opinion is that in a well 



