44 



Stockton, Merced, and Madera. It is also grown extensively near Colusa in 

 the Sacramento Valley and near Gonzales, Monterey County, on the coast. 



Barley seems to thrive better in a warm dry climate than in a cool, moist 

 climate, and fortunately the former condition prevails quite generally in this 

 state. With regard to soil requirements, barley is perhaps more exacting than 

 any other crop. Briefly stated, it seems to thrive best on a rich, fertile loam, 

 well drained and rather light in character. Soils that are low in fertility, 

 extremely light or extremely heavy, or soils that are cold and damp for a long 

 period during the winter should be avoided for this crop. The barley plant 

 has a rather tender root system and any adverse soil condition is apt to produce 

 a marked injurious effect. 



The dominant feature which characterizes barley culture in this state at the 

 present time is mass production rather than maximum production per unit area. 

 The farms upon which grain plays an important part are usually large, varying 

 from two hundred acres to one or two thousand acres or more in size. In 

 order to handle such immense areas the method and implements used must 

 necessarily be such as will enable the farmer to cover the most ground in the 

 shortest possible time. 



In the fall or early winter as soon as sufficient rain has fallen to moisten 

 the soil, the fields are plowed to a depth of three or four inches, using large 

 gang plows in order to hasten the work. On the smaller farms mules are used 

 as motive power, while on the larger ranches tractors are more common. After 

 the field has been plowed it is disked, seeded broadcast, and harrowed, which 

 completes the operation of putting in the crop. Upon the larger ranches, with 

 the use of a tractor and the proper combination of machinery, the work of 

 plowing, disking, seeding, and harrowing is often done at a single operation, 

 which greatly reduces the cost per unit area. Four or five men with a single 

 outfit can handle from three to five hundred acres or more, depending upon the 

 season. 



The usual practice is to harvest the crop with a combined harvester, which 

 cuts, threshes, and sacks the grain, ready for market, at a single operation. 

 Five or six men are required to run the outfit, and can cover from twenty-five 

 to forty acres per day. The combined harvester has greatly reduced the cost 

 of handling the grain crop, but it is very wasteful of grain and its continued 

 use renders the fields extremely foul. 



In a few instances on the smaller farms summer fallowing for barley is 

 sometimes practiced. The fields are plowed in the fall and allowed to lie idle 

 for a year, with an occasional harrowing to prevent the growth of weeds and 

 also to prevent the loss of moisture by evaporation. 



Under conditions of continuous culture, fifteen sacks is considered a fair 

 yield. In rare cases twenty sacks are obtained, but more often the farmer 

 is content with ten or twelve. In the fallow land thirty sacks per acre is 

 considered good. 



The cost of plowing, disking, seeding, and harrowing, together with the cost 

 of the seed, is about $5 per acre. The cost of harvesting a fifteen-sack crop 

 of barley, including sacks, is about $3.50 per acre. To this must be added an 

 additional cost of 75 cents for marketing, making the total cost of producing 

 the crop $9.25 per acre. The average price of barley is about $1.10 per hundred, 

 giving a gross return of $16.50. After subtracting the cost of production 

 there remains a net return of $7.25, which must cover taxes, depreciation on 



