PART III. GRAINS AND FORAGE 



CROPS 



Wants Us to Do the Whole Thing. 



Can you help me to determine a good product to plant somewhere 

 in California ; also ivhat particular section would be most suitable for 

 the raising of that which you would advise? I wish a crop of per- 

 manent nature (as orchard trees). I also desire advice on some product 

 which li'ould give a quick return while I am waiting on the more per- 

 manent one to mature and hear. I have not procured land yet, and am 

 thinking seriously of trying to get government land, therefore, you are 

 free to give me the best location for the raising of that which you would 

 suggest. I zvant a money-making product and one zvhich is not already 

 overdone. 



The choice of crops depends quite as much upon the market 

 demand and opportunity as it does upon the suitability of the soil 

 and local climate. Choice of crops indeed involves almost the whole 

 business of farming, and although we can sometimes give a man 

 useful suggestions as to the growth of plants and the protection of 

 plants from enemies, we cannot undertake to plan his farming busi- 

 ness for him. He must form his own opinions as to what will be 

 most marketable, and therefore profitable, if he succeeds in getting 

 a good article for sale. A wise man at the East once said: "You 

 can advise a man to do almost anything. You can even select a wife 

 for him, but never commit the indiscretion of advising him what to 

 grow to make money. That is a matter he has to determine for 

 himself." 



Pasturing Young Grain. 



Would it be advisable to herd milch cozvs for a fczu hours each day 

 on a Held of black oats wliich is to be grown for hay? The oats are now 

 about four inches high and rank, as the land was pastured last year. The 

 land is sandy, rolling soil and will soon be dry enough so that the cows 

 would not injure the plants. The idea is that the leaves which ar^ 

 green now zvill all dry up and are really not the growth which is cut for 

 hay; therefore, I should think it would do no harm to feed it down a 

 bit. 



Over-rank grain with abundant moisture will make a more stocky 

 growth and stand against lodging if pastured or mowed. The leaves 

 which you speak of as being lost in the later growth of the plant 

 serve an important purpose in making that growth, and removing 

 them is a repressive process which is not desirable when rain is 

 short. We should allow the plants to push along into as good a 

 growth of hay as a dry year's moisture will give. 



