State Agricultural Society. 373 



the depth of one foot, in the valley. The mountains are covered with 

 snow every Winter. The effect of the heat is so different from that of 

 the Eastern States that after a residence of twenty years in Colusa, we 

 happened to he in Springfield, Illinois, in the month of June, when the 

 thermometer marked ninety degrees, and the heat became so intolerably 

 oppressive that we started at once for the Sacramento Valley. The 

 summit of the coast mountains is said to have the best climate for 

 invalids in the world, and every Summer hundreds of people flock 

 thither, and camp out. The rainfall is, so far as we have been able to 

 judge, about the same as at Sacramento. 



PRODUCTIONS OF THE SOIL. 



The principal production so far has been wheat and other small grain, 

 but experiments fully prove that both the soil and climate are favorable 

 in the extreme to the j>roduction of cotton, tobacco, hops, castor beans, 

 flax, broom corn, all manner of vegetables and fruit, not excepting 

 oranges and lemons. Some years ago J. P. Bainbridge planted eight 

 acres of tobacco, and gathered one thousand pounds of fine tobacco to 

 the acre. He would have continued the crop had he remained on the 

 same land. The quality of the tobacco was excellent. Cotton has 

 been tried by Andrew Rutland the present season. We had hoped to 

 have been able to have procured his balance sheet for this paper, but 

 the cotton is not yet all ginned. Cotton must, in the very near future, be 

 one of the principal products of the Sacramento Vallej". Sixty bushels 

 of wheat to the acre is no uncommon thing, but this is not claimed as 

 an average. As at present farmed, the average is not, perhaps, above 

 twenty bushels, but we maintain that with any degree of care the aver- 

 age can be brought up to thirty bushels. The figures that follow will 

 give an idea of the progress of agriculture in this county. 



SOME FIGURES AND COMPARISONS. 



The first assessment, made in eighteen hundred and fitly-one, footed 

 up three hundred and seventy-three thousand two hundred and six dol- 

 lars. For the fiscal year eighteen hundred and sixty-sixty-one, the 

 totals on the assessment roll show the following valuations: real estate, 

 five hundred and ninety-three thousand three hundred and eighty-six 

 dollars; improvements assessed to others than the owners of real estate, 

 fifty thousand three hundred and seventy-two dollars; personal prop- 

 erty, nine hundred and thirty-four thousand three hu/fdred and eight 

 dollars; total assessment, one million five hundred and eighty-one thou- 

 sand and sixt}"-six dollars. For eighteen hundred and seventy-seventy- 

 one Ave find: real estate, two million three hundred and eighty thousand 

 one hundred and four dollars; improvements assessed to other than the 

 owners of land, twenty-three thousand one hundred and seventy five 

 dollars; personal property, one million nine hundred and thirty-five 

 thousand seven hundred and sixty-two dollars; total, four million three 

 hundred and thirty-nine thousand and forty-one dollars. For eighteen 

 hundred and seventy-four, as follows: real estate, five million five hun- 

 dred and eighty-six thousand one hundred and fifty-seven dollars; im- 

 provements, seven hundred and forty-one thousand five hundred and 

 fifty-seven dollars; personal propert}", two million eight hundred and 

 tvelve thousand one hundred and thirty-six dollars; total, nine million 

 oie hundred and nineteen thousand eight hundred and fifty dollars. 



