416 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



mid-season it lodges the wheat, and late in the season it 

 damages the straw lying on the ground. Cutting usually 

 commences earl>' in July, but the last of the straw is not 

 stored, or rather stacked, until October. "Wheat is Cali- 

 fornia's greatest product, and the long dry season is a 

 necessity to the wheat farmers. The wet season is equally 

 necessary to ensure a crop for the next year. 



Twenty or thirty horses are required to carry on a large 

 farm. Mules are now taking the place of horses, as they 

 are tougher and stronger. They are raised on the ranches, 

 and a good jack for breeding is worth from eight hundred 

 to one thousand dollars. Horses are fed from the stack or 

 mow. Those not at work are pastured with the cattle, 

 runnino; at larse all winter in the ijrain fields, and each 

 drove usually has a leader. Snow rarely falls. Every 

 ranch is supplied witli a windmill for pum})ing water. 



Harvesting is done with a large harvester, costinij; about 

 a thousand dollars. It cuts a swath twenty feet wide, cuts 

 the wheat from the stalk, lands it on a header, separates the 

 wheat from the straw, threshes it, winnows it, pours the 

 wheat into a bag, sews the bag up and drops it on the ground 

 ready for market. The harvester is generally worked l)y 

 horses. To bao- from one thousand to fifteen hundred 

 bushels of wheat is a fair day's work. 



In southern California many of the large farms have been 

 cut up into small holdings. Most of the farms are devoted 

 to fruit raising, and a ten-acre farm is not uncommo;i. 

 Irrigation is necessary in this section, and this makes it 

 impossible for a man of 1 united means to carry on a large 

 farm. Again, eight or ten years must ela})se before an 

 orange grove Avill bear paying cro})s, and a heavy expense 

 nmst then be incurred in fumic-ating the trees to rid them 

 of the scale insect. In irrigating, a space twelve or fifteen 

 feet square around each tree is inclosed in ridges of earth. 

 The irrigating ditch company sells the water to the fruit and 

 vegeta])lo growers in such quantities as they desire. The 

 main ditch flows beside the road, and the water is let onto 

 the diU'ercnt farms as it flows along. Tlie farmers have to 

 take their turns, and must l)c on hand when the water 

 arrives, or Ihoy will los(> it. It may come weekly OT' 

 monthly, accoiding to the su})i)ly .'i;id demand. 



