UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION 



BENJ. IDE WHEELER, PRESIDENT 



COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE 



THOMAS FORSYTH HUNT, 



BERKELEY H - E - VAN NORMAN, VICE-DIRECTOR AND DEAN 



UNIVERSITY FARM SCHOOL 



CIRCULAR No. 121 



OCTOBER, 1914 



SOME THINGS THE PROSPECTIVE 

 SETTLER SHOULD KNOW 



BY 

 THOMAS FORSYTH HUNT 



AND OTHER MEMBERS OF THE STAFF 



[A good many people are being detached from their customary employment 

 or source of income by the pressure of the crisis in Europe. To all such who 

 are looking about for a new start, the best suggestion we can give is that the 

 land is the place where living is cheapest and the cost of shelter hardly exists 

 at all. No man forced out of employment this winter is in worse plight than 

 millions of immigrants who have landed in America with less than $50 in their 

 pockets. Those immigrants who have gone to the land have been able in the 

 course of a few years to acquire a farm, to raise families; and to participate in 

 the most wholesome gifts that American civilization has to offer. To be forced 

 from the city back to the farm may seem a hardship to the man who goes 

 through the transition, but in the end he will be better off and his children 

 will be benefited. Collier's.] 



An agent who is seeking to sell land, holds that he may, with 

 propriety, state the maximum yield which may be expected from a 

 given crop on the land which he is offering for sale. It is difficult 

 to deny that he has such right. It is worth while, therefore, to con- 

 sider whether there is any relationship between maximum yields and 

 yields that may be expected in the ordinary run of business. The 

 average yield of wheat in California, one season with another, is 

 about 13 bushels. It varies in different seasons from 9 to 18 bushels 

 per acre. On land that is fairly adapted to wheat good farmers not 

 infrequently get 40 bushels per acre and no farmer thinks that his 

 crop is to be commended unless he has obtained 25 bushels per acre, 

 providing the season is favorable. In the same manner, the average 

 yield of barley in California is about 25 bushels per acre. Many good 

 farmers secure 75 bushels, while a yield of 50 bushels per acre is 

 considered commendable. Under the most favorable conditions a yield 

 of 50 bushels of wheat or 100 bushels of barley is not impossible, 

 although it is a rather extraqr dinar 



