AGRICULTURE. 163 



mildness of the winters. Here we have no snow or ice, and 

 no time is lost because of cold. Neither are our frosts so se- 

 vere as those east of the Mississippi. But, on the other hand, 

 firmers in other parts of the Union have a great advantage 

 over us in the security of title and the equal division of the 

 land among the tillers of the soil. Here most of the titles are 

 in dispute, and much of the land held under undoubted title is 

 owned in large tracts by a few persons. 



Barns are not used in California. The grain, after cutting, 

 is put into a stack, or thrown into a heap, until a threshing- 

 machine can be obtained, and the grain is then placed in the 

 granary. Between harvest and threshing-time there is little 

 danger of rain; and to such slight danger as there is, every 

 farmer exposes himself. Barns in other countries are necessi- 

 ties ; here thev could not be used if we had them. Not unfre- 

 quently the grain, within two weeks after cutting, is stored in 

 a warehouse in San Francisco ; often it is left lying in sacks 

 ujDon the field until it is sold — a period of months. In August 

 and September, the square piles of white sacks in the stubble- 

 fields are a common and prominent feature of the Californian 

 landscape in the farming districts. 



The straw, elsewhere saved, is usually burned here; and a 

 most improvident practice it is. Not more than a dozen or 

 two of farmers save the straw. The others burn it after the 

 first rain, when there is no danger of the fire spreading ; and 

 the columns of smoke rising all over the country make a sin- 

 gular aj^pearance. 



Farms in California are usually larger than those in the East- 

 ern states, and manv of the ranches — containing; from ten to 

 fifty thousand acres — are large enough for principalities. 



As our valleys are not covered with sod, so the first plough- 

 ing is nearly as easy as any of the subsequent ones ; and the 

 severe task of breaking prairie, so common in the states of the 

 upper Mississippi valley, is unknown here. 



§ 134. Fences. — In the matter of fences, the Californian 

 farmer is at a disadvantage, as compared with his Eastern 



