24 



EXTEACTS FKOM CORRESPONDENCE. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH SEEDS. 



Hon. John Bidwell, of Cliico, California, makes the following report 

 upon experiments with seeds received from this Department : 



Having been favored by the Department with specimens of Avheat and other seeds 

 during the year, I hereby acknowledge the obligation under which your kindness ha« 

 placed me, and present my report of results. The wheat consisted of the following 

 varities : Tappahannock, forty-six and one-half pounds ; Rough Chaff, seven and one- 

 half pounds ; Talavera, six pounds ; Polish wheat, seven and one-half pounds. The 

 annexed table shows the time of sowing, area sown, yield, &c., of the three varieties 

 named: 



Variety. 



Tappahannock Jan. 27. 1809 



Rough Chaflf - Jan. 27, 18C9 



Talavera ' Jan. 28, 1869 



Pounds. 



Area 

 sown. 



Sq. rods. 



169. 24 



40.02 



18.80 



Yield. 



Bushels. 



23 223 

 6 100 

 4.016 



It will be seen that the Tappahannock was sown at the rate of forty-four pounds to 

 the acre, and yielded at the rate of 21.96 bushels to the acre ; the Rough Chaff, sown 

 at the rate of thirty pounds to the acre, yielded at the rate of 24.38 bushels to the acre : 

 and the Talavera, sown at the rate of fifty-one pounds to the acre, yielded at the rate of 

 34.18 bushels to the acre. The Polish wheat was sown about the same time, but, for 

 several reasons, it was not deemed worthy of cultivation here, and therefore was not 

 harvested. 



The land used was a sandy loam, exhausted by ten to twelve years of constant culti- 

 vation, but a little manure had been unevenly scattered over it and plowed in. The 

 sowing was unavoidably committed to inexperienced hands, hence the wheat was 

 unevenly and too thinly sown. My rule has been never to sow less than sixty pounds, 

 nor more than seventy-five pounds per acre, if sown in December — the average time for 

 putting in wheat in this part of California. , The earlier wheat is sown the better after 

 the fall rains have wet the land and rendered possible the setting of the plows in 

 motion. If practicable, then, wheat may be put in in November, when fifty pounds of 

 seed per acre will suffice; the later the sowing the greater should be the quantity of 

 seed per acre. My experience in this locality would suggest the following rules as to 

 quantity of seed and time of sowing : when sown in November, fifty pounds of seed ; 

 in December, sixty pounds; in January, seventy pounds; in February, eighty pounds; 

 in March, ninety pounds. The application of these rules to the experiments with the 

 seeds sent from the Department would have produced very different results. The late 

 sowing could not be helped, as the seed came late ; the thin sowing had a bad effect, 

 in permitting the weeds to spring up and overtop the wheat. Having started wrong, 

 the drawbacks accumulated to the end of the chapter. Small patches of grain cannot 

 be cut with a header, which is about the only harvesting implement now used in this 

 (the Sacramento) valley. Cradles and sickles are seldom seen or used, and are soon to 

 be numbered, it would seem, among the things that were. The weeds would have 

 prevented the use of cradles, had such a thing been at hand. By dint of good luck a 

 few old sickles were found, and a few old squaws to use them. Owing to the scarcity 

 of hands during last harvest, these native women cut with the sickle and thrashed with 

 sticks the wheat in question. (Even the flail is about obsolete and seldom seeu.) Some 

 of these same natives remember, however, how harvesting was done in the first settle- 

 ment of this valley, dating back more than a quarter of a century — how wheat was cut 

 with sickles by those who were fortunate enough to have such improved implements of 

 agriculture; but in their absence, which was very common, Avith butcher knives, or 

 scraps of old hoops, or with sticks split so as to form a sharp side or edge with which 

 tlie dry and brittle straw could be severed. These creatures, always wasteful, were 

 this year aggra^ atingly so, for they consider the gleanings their perquisites. In conclu- 

 sion, I must not omit to mention the unfavorable season and consequent partial 

 failure of the wheat crop — it being only about three-fourths of the usual yield. Had it 

 been practicable to have sown these specimens early, say in December ; had there been 

 aproper quantity of seed per acre, thereby diminishing the amount of land but multi- 

 plying the number of stalks to a given area, which would have kept down the weeds; 

 had the harvesting been carefully done ; and, lastly, had the season been but ordi- 

 narily propitious, the result wouhl have been widely different, and the following esti- 



