26 



increase is between 80 and 90 per cent. Of the latter, (hogs,) about fifteen thou 

 sand are fed on mast in the county and in tlie foot-hills of the adjoining counties- 

 No rain has fallen to date, (November 12,) and another dry season is autici 

 pated by many." 



Telegraph accounts of the 30th of November represent that abundant rains 

 were then falling, and on the 14th December heavy floods were approliendcd. 



In Tulare county the wheat and barley crops were less than one-half the cus- 

 tomary yield, and but one-half the number of fattening cattle. Fattening hogs 

 were an average. Corn is largely increased by extending irrigation. " No rain 

 yet, adds our correspondent, and all the cattle are driven to the swamps and 

 mountains. A warm early fall rain will save thousands, but if late and cold, 

 our stock will be fearfully thinned." 



In San Diego and Merced counties the wheat, barley, corn, and potato crops 

 were better — about three-fourths of an average crop. 



In counties where the soil is loose, early sowing has commenced, if we judge 

 aright from the following, in the San Francisco Mercantile Gazette of November 

 2. It says : 



"We learn from good authority that the farmers in Yolo and Solano .counties, 

 who were so unfortunate as not to raise any crops of cereals the past season, have 

 taken time by the forelock, and have been harrowing up their ploughed grounds, 

 which are now like an ash heap, and have already sown thousands of acres of 

 barley and wheat. The whole farming country in the vicinity of Cache creek 

 and Vacaville is already planted in grain." 



The deiiciency in the crop of this season is supplied by importation. The paper 

 quoted from says it is advised that 7,000 barrels of flour have already been 

 shipped to California from New York ; that several cai-goes of flour and wheat 

 from Chili are looked for, and that Oregon will not be unmindful of the high 

 prices in California. 



OREGON. 



Our returns of the crops in this State are principally from its northern coun- 

 ties. They are a full average in some products, and above it in others. Here 

 is the reverse in all those products, cereal and stock, in which the season has 

 been so injurious in California. The cause will be seen from the leading article in 

 this report — the diflference in climate. California lies in the dry trade wind 

 belt, but Oregon in the extra-tropical region, where showers fall both summer 

 and winter. There are occasional droughts in it, as in the Atlantic States, but 

 no such prolonged and destructive ones as occasionally occur in the trade wind 

 belts. 



Compare the crops of California and of Oregon, and the nature of these 

 climates will be seen. The loss of crops and stock in the one has been set 

 forth under the preceding head of this article ; the abundance of the other 

 will be seen in the following extracts from our correspondent in Columbia county, 

 Oregon : 



" The average crop of wheat per acre in this county is 30 to 35 bushels ; 

 rye per acre, 40 bushels ; barley, 40 bushels ; oats, 40 bushels ; corn, 35 to 40 

 bushels ; the nights are too cold for corn to do well. Tobacco does well. In 

 1863 was the commencement of its export. I cannot state certainly the amount 

 per acre, but those with whom I have conversed say that 1,600 pounds would 

 be a fair average. Potatoes, 300 to 400 bushels per acre; hay, 3 to 4 tons per 

 acre." 



Europe is situated in this extra-tropical climate, and hence there, as in Ore- 

 gon, there is not a sufficient degree of heat to grow Indian corn profitably. 



