AGEICULTUEE. 181 



the principal grass grown in the state, since it is peculiarly 

 fitted to thrive in a climate and soil so dry as ours. 



§ 141. Tobacco^ Cotton^ Rice. — California produces tobac- 

 co of a fine quality, but the amount grown is small ; and the 

 experience of its cultivation is too brief to furnish much infor- 

 mation. It requires a moist soil, and most of the attempts to 

 cultivate it in dry places in the Sacramento valley and in the 

 vicinity of Los Angeles have failed. The best crops have been 

 ^rown near the coast, north of San Pablo Bay and about the 

 head of Suisun Bay. The tobacco-plant has been converted 

 into a perennial at San Francisco ; one specimen of it growing 

 up eight or ten feet high, like a tree. 



A little cotton of a good quality has been grown, but I think 

 its cultivation can never be extensive. The cotton states have 

 three times as much rain as California, and I presume that 

 only our moistest lands could produce a good crop of it — 

 such, for instance, as the tule-lands in the valley of the San 

 Joaquin. 



The question whether rice can be cultivated in the tule-lands 

 has been much discussed, but is not yet decided, though it is 

 the general opinion that some of the tule-lands will produce 

 large and profitable crops. 



§ 142. Hop. — The hop growls luxuriantly and produces abun- 

 dantly in California ; and indeed there is good reason to doubt 

 whether any country has a climate and soil more favorable to 

 it than ours. We have no heavy dews or showers in summer 

 to w^ash ofi* the dust which contains the strength of the flow- 

 ers, or to cover the plant Avith blight. The failures of crops, 

 from these causes, so frequent in England and the Atlantic 

 states, w^ould never occur here. Not only is the crop certain, 

 but it can be cured here with more ease and in better condi- 

 tion than in other countries. The moisture of the air in Eng- 

 land compels the hop-growers to dry the flowers in the sun or 

 in kilns ; and if a rain fixll upon them while drying, they are 

 ruined : and they are injured by both the sun and kiln-drying. 

 In California, they may be dried in the open air, under sheds; 



