498 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 
in but limited use; although nowhere, probably, would drilling be more 
desirable, in order to admit of subsequent culture, for want of which 
crops often totally fail on the heavier soils. During the rainy season 
the covering is often dene by rolling alone, and on harrowed ground 
the roller is frequently used later in the season, in order to compact the 
surface so as to mitigate the drying effects of “ northers.” 
In the grain harvest (which begins in the second week of June) the 
“wholesale” mode of procedure is equally prevalent. The seythe is 
used only to cut the way, and that on small farms; then follows the 
reaper, hired if not owned by the farmer himself. But the binding and 
shocking process that is to sueceed is far too slow for the large grain- 
grower, who has his hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of acres to 
reap within the short time allowed by the exceedingly rapid maturing, 
which threatens him with serious loss by shedding, the air being at 
that season very dry even at night. His implement is the giant header, 
pushed into the golden fields by from four to eight horses. Its vibrat- 
ing cutters clip off the heads with only a few inches of straw attached, 
on a swath 16 and even 28 feet wide, while a revolving apron carries the 
laden ears to a wagon driven alongside, and having a curious, wide, 
slanting bed for their reception.. Several of these wagons drive back 
and forth between the swatis and the steam thresher, where, within half 
an hour, the grain that was waving in the morning breeze may be sacked 
ready for shipment to Liverpool. Even this energetic mode of procedure, 
however, has appeared too slow to some of the progressive men in busi- 
ness, and we have seen a wondrous and fearful combination of header, 
thresher, and sacking-wagon moving in procession side by side through 
the doomed grain. If this stupendous combination and last refinement 
shall prove practically successful, we shall doubtiess next see the flour- 
ing-mill itself form a part of this agricultural pageant. Where farming 
is not done on quite so energetic a plan, the reaped and bound grain 
being at that season perfectly safe from rain, is left either in shocks or 
stacks until the threshing party comes around, mostly with a portable 
engine often fed with straw alone, to drive the huge “ separator,” whose 
combined din and pufling will sometimes startle late sleepers, as it sud- 
denly starts up in the morning from the mest unexpected places. Two 
wagons usually aided by some “ bucks” (a kind of sledge-rake, which 
also serves to remove the straw from the mouth of the thresher) feed 
the devouring monster. In an ineredibly short time the shocks or stacks 
are cleared away and in their stead appear square piles of turgid grain- 
sacks and broad, low hillocks of straw. Both products often remain 
thus for six or eight weeks, the grain getting so thoroughly dry in the 
interval that there is frequently an overweight of five or more per cent. 
when, after its long passage in the damp sea air, the cargo reaches 
Liverpool. The moral question thus arising as to who is entitled to 
the benefit of this increase I will not pretend to determine; but ths 
producers say that they rarely hear of any diiferences in their favor. 
The manner of disposing of the straw is one of the weakest points of 
California agriculture. Near to cities or cheap transportation, much of 
it is baled like hay, and finds a ready market, but in remote districts 
it is got rid of by applying the torch; and these ‘‘ straw fires” habitually 
redden the autumn skies as do the prairie fires in the western States, 
covering the whole country with a smoke haze, as a faint reminiscence 
of the Indian summer, which is not otherwise well-defined on the Paciiic 
coast. This holocaust of valuable materials, which might be made the 
means of some slight return of plant-food tothe soil, is astanding reproach 
to those who practice it; yet they have some excuse in the fact that the 
