WHEAT. 



279 



Col. Marshall P. Wilder: 

 five bushels to the acre. 



&quot; In favorable seasons the yield of wheat in California is about twenty- 

 Instances, are not uncommon where in new and very fertile loca 

 tions it has reached 

 fifty and even sixty, 

 and seventy bushels 

 per acre. The seed 

 is large, plump, 

 white, and so well 

 ripened by the high 

 temperature, that it 

 may be stored in 

 bulk for months 

 without danger of 

 sweating or injury, 

 and in fact often 

 requires moistening 

 before it is ground. 

 The quality of the 

 California wheat is 

 w o r 1 d-w i d e r e- 

 nowned for its 

 weight, strength 

 and whiteness. 

 Some of the dis 

 tricts, such as Ala- 

 meda, Santa Clara 

 and San Mateo, pro 

 duce the finest 

 wheat in the world ; 

 and the quality of 

 the whole state av 

 erages better than 

 that of the states 

 this side of the Ne- 

 vadas. As there is 

 no rain in the sum 

 mer, the grain crops 

 are left standing in 

 the fields for weeks 

 after they are ripe. 

 Much of the grain 

 is harvested by a 

 machine called the 

 header, which pass 

 es through the field 

 cutting a swath fif 

 teen feet wide, taking off the heads eight inches long, throwing them into a wagon by its 

 side, at the rate of an acre in less than an hour. The crops are generally threshed by a 

 steam machine brought into the field. This machine requires two horses, two men, and two 



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