AGRICULTURE. 17* 



same author (page 445), 1,700 fanegas were harvested from 19 

 sown — an increase of 89-fold; and in 1827, an increase of 58- 

 fold was obtained at San Luis Obispo by scratching the seed 

 in with a harrow upon land unploughed, and not even touched 

 by the thing called a plough in those days. Not less than half 

 a fanega is sown to the acre ; so we may suppose that the fig- 

 ures which mdicate the increase of the crop over the seed also 

 indicate the number of bushels to the acre. Now, a tenfold 

 increase is considered a fair crop. Crops of 80 bushels to the 

 acre have often been grown in California. Mr. Hill harvested 

 82^ bushels from an acre in Pajaro valley in 1853, and obtained 

 660 bushels from 10 acres. In 1851, Mr. P. M. Scooffy har- 

 vested 88 bushels; and Mr. N. Carriger 80 bushels in Sonoma 

 valley. In 1853, J. M. Horner harvested 1,000 acres of wheat 

 near the Mission of San Jose, with an average of 40 bushels, 

 some of it producing 60 bushels to the acre. The next year 

 he had 2,000 acres, with an average of 40 bushels. Large 

 fields of wheat in Eel River valley, according to the report of 

 the assessor of Humboldt county, averaged 73 bushels to the 

 acre in 1857. 



In the best wheat districts of the Mississippi valley, the 

 farmers generally believe, or did believe a few years ago, that 

 not more than 45 bushels of wheat ever had been or ever could 

 be grown upon an acre ; and when, on a visit from California, 

 I spoke to experienced and intelligent men among them of 60 

 bushels, I was told that not more than 50 bushels could possi- 

 bly stand upon the ground. In 1856, the average wheat-crop 

 per acre in California, according to the county assessors' reports, 

 was — 25 bushels in Amador and Santa Cruz counties, 30 in 

 Marin, 28 in San Francisco, 19 in Sacramento, 20 in San Joa- 

 quin, 15 in Sonoma, and 28 m Tuolumne. The next year it 

 was 35 in Amador, 40 in Del Norte, 20 in Alameda, Santa 

 Cruz, San Joaquin, and Tuolumne, 19 in Sacramento, and 30 

 in Sonoma. In 1859, the average was 30 bushels in San Ma- 

 teo, Santa Cruz, Siskiyou, Sonoma, and Yuba, 32 in Butte, 25 

 in Napa and Santa Clara, 20 in Contra Costa and Solano, 15 in 



