216 RESOURCES OP CALIFORNIA. 



ice, and no time is lost because of cold. Neither are our 

 frosts so severe as those east of the Mississippi. The climate 

 in the valleys is so warm, and the sky so clear through the 

 winter, that vegetable life is, in ordinary seasons, almost as 

 active in January as in July ; and our trees and shrubs have 

 nearly twice as much time to grow and mature as in the free 

 States of the East, where frost reigns from October to May. 

 It is a well known fact, that California has produced larger 

 specimens of garden vegetables, more thrifty growth and rapid 

 development of fruit trees, and larger crops of small grain to 

 the acre, than any State in the Union, and many persons have 

 supposed our soil to be richer. No comparison of our soils has 

 been made by chemical analysis with those of Illinois, Mis- 

 souri, Indiana, and Ohio ; but the probability is, that the latter 

 are more fertile. The loam is deeper ; the vegetation has been 

 greater, and it has enriched the soil by the accumulation of 

 its decomposed remains through thousands of years ; whereas 

 in the valleys of California, the vegetation is comparatively 

 scanty, and the air is for much of the year too dry to permit a 

 decomposition of wood or grass to enrich the soil. The bot- 

 tom lands of the Sacramento and San Joaquin are far inferior 

 in depth, blackness, and fertility of loam, to the valleys of the 

 Miami, Wabash, and Illinois Rivers. 



Our domestic animals can live through the winter without 

 shelter and without cultivated food, and thus several items, 

 causing much expenditure in Ohio, are here saved. 



The dryness of the summers saves much trouble and expense. 

 Weeds cannot grow here as they do in a moister climate. A 

 late ploughing finishes them for the season. 



Barns are not generally used in California. The grain, 

 after cutting, is put into a stack, or thrown into a heap, until 

 a threshing-ma chine 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 



