AGRICULTURE. 171 



gluten be small, the grain of the bread will be uneven, the 

 dough will give way in places, allowing the formation of large 

 cavities, and less moisture will be retained. The Avheat of dif- 

 ferent countries varies greatly in glutinousness, and California 

 occupies a very high position. Our wheat is far more glutin- 

 ous than that of any other North American state, and, although 

 I have no precise information, I am inclined to believe that we 

 have a like superiority in this respect over European countries. 

 The consequence is, that our wheat is now in demand in IsTew 

 York to mix with their weak grain, so that a tolerably strong- 

 flour may be made. 



But the wheat of California is not all equally glutinous ; some 

 of it is much weaker than other. The most glutinous is that 

 grown in Santa Clara valley ; the southeastern part of San Ma- 

 teo county ; the southern part of Alameda county ; and Diablo, 

 San Ramon, and Suisun valleys. That of Santa Rosa, Pajaro, 

 Salinas, Petaluma, and Sonoma, is considerably inferior in glu- 

 tinousness, but is better than that of the Sacramento, San Joa- 

 quin, and Napa valleys, the vicinity of Half-Moon Bay, and 

 Alameda opposite the Golden Gate. The strongly glutinous 

 is about one-third of the crop of the state. It is not known 

 wdiy the wheat in one district is more glutinous than in another. 

 None of that grown very near the coast is strongly glutinous ; 

 so the moisture seems to be injurious. Napa wheat is inferior 

 in glutinousness to that of Sonoma, though farther from the 

 coast, and more free from ocean-fogs, but the soil of Napa is 

 much moister. 



In Oregon and Washington, where the climate is very moist, 

 the wheat is as weak as at Half-Moon Bay. In the Mississippi 

 valley, where a great amount of rain falls, the wheat is also 

 weak ; and just in the Gallego and Haxall district, if report be 

 true, the rain-fall is less than in any wheat-district east of the 

 Alleghanies. And yet in the Sacramento and San Joaquin 

 valleys, which are among the driest parts of California, the 

 wheat is very weak. This is accounted for — by those adopting 

 the theory that glutinousness depends entirely upon the ch- 



