108 EESOITECES OF CALIFOE XIA. 



rains be light ; but when the rains are abundant, the late-sown 

 fields are the best. There is always danger that small grain 

 in California, if sown early, will get more rain than it wants. 

 The same barley is sown early and late ; our farmers do not 

 know any thing of " winter barley" as distinct from " spring 

 barley" — a division fomiliar in the Atlantic states. 



The harvest precedes that of wheat ; commencing in the Sac- 

 ramento Basin early in June, and in the coast valleys late in 

 the same month. The grain is all cut with reaping-machines, 

 and is never housed, but is threshed on the field, with or with- 

 out stacking. Sometimes it is bound ; frequently it is gath- 

 ered in a tight wagon-bed, and hauled into a pile in the centre 

 of the field, where it remains until the threshing-machine can 

 come. The rarity of rain from June to October renders this 

 course pretty safe; though it has happened, on one or two 

 occasions during the last ten years, that grain in the field has 

 been injured by September rains. The same land is cultivated 

 year after year in barley ; and there has been very little, if 

 any, decrease in crops during the last ten years. 



When men are hired to plough and sow by the job, they 

 charge three dollars per acre ; reaping and binding cost two 

 dollars per acre ; threshing costs from one-twelfth to one-tenth 

 of the grain, and sacks holding one hundred pounds cost fif- 

 teen cents apiece. The common yield is from thirty to thirty- 

 five bushels per acre, and fifty per cent, more than the average 

 barley-crop in the Eastern states. In 1856, according to the 

 reports of the county assessors, the average yield of barley in 

 Alameda county was 45 bushels ; in Sonoma, 39 ; in Marin, 39 

 in Sacramento, 26 ; in Amador, 34 ; in Santa Cruz, 30. In 1857 

 according to the same authorities, the average yield in Alame 

 da was 40 bushels; Sonoma, 25; Marin, 39; Sacramento, 24 

 Amador, 25 ; and Santa Cruz, 30. In 1859, Alameda reported 

 an average of 29 bushels ; Contra Costa, 30 ; Napa, 25 ; San 

 Joaquin, 17; Sonoma, 40; Santa Cruz, 30; Yolo, 10; Sacra- 

 mento, 25. In 1860, the assessors' reports show an average 

 of 30 bushels for Alameda, 40 for Butte, 40 for Amador, 35 



