AGRICULTURE. 159 



proportion of the land is cultivated in ISTapa valley than in any 

 other part of the state, and the cultivation is more thorough. 

 Suisun valley has a rich, sandy loam, good both for barley and 

 wheat. Yaca valley, a small vale near Suisun, has a very warm, 

 fertile soil, and is shut in by the hills from the wind. It will 

 be an excellent place for fruit, and every thing will ripen early 

 there. 



South of the straits of Carquiuez is Diablo valley, which 

 has an excellent soil for w^heat and barley. So also has San 

 Ramon valley, but the fruit has been badly nipped by frost 

 during tlie last three or four years. Amador valley has a soil 

 of rich sand at the sides and strong loam in the centre, all of 

 it moist and fertile. Livermore valley, which may be consid- 

 ered as the eastern half of Amador, is a bed of gravel, of little 

 value for tillage. Suiiol valley has a rich, sandy loam. The 

 Alameda plain, on the eastern side of San Francisco Bay, from 

 San Pablo to San Jose, is one of the richest agricultural dis- 

 tricts in the state ; the soil is fertile — in some places clay, in 

 others sand. The soil on the western side of the bay is similar 

 in character, but there is not so much of it. The lower part of 

 Santa Clara valley has a fertile, black, sandless loam, changing 

 to sand and then to gravel, which last is abundant toward the 

 head of the valley, where very little of the land is tilled. The 

 principal fruit district in the state is in the vicinity of San Jose. 

 The plain east of Monterey Bay, in Santa Cruz county, has a 

 fertile soil, and a climate peculiarly favorable to beans ; excel- 

 lent crops of wheat and barley are also grown here. The soil 

 of Pajaro valley is one of the richest and strongest in the state, 

 and its crops of wheat and potatoes are unsurpassed. The Sa- 

 linas has a rich, sandy loam in the lower part of its valley and 

 near the river, but the sides and head of the vale contain much 

 oravel ; the climate and soil are very dry, and only a small por- 

 tion of the land is cultivated. The Cuyama, Santa Inez, and 

 Santa Clara River valleys, are sandy and dry, and have but 

 little tillage ; the last-named valley has a soil that is in places 

 almost pure sand, too thin to secure a covering of grass in a 



