218 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



wet the earth down four or six inches deep ; a little shower 

 will not suffice. The soils of loam and clay are so hard, that 

 no ordinary plough is strong enough to break through them ; 

 and ploughing would do no good before the rains, because the 

 earth would be in large clods, which would furnish little 

 nutriment to the grain. If, however, the land had been 

 ploughed late in the spring and allowed to lie fallow, it may be 

 in good condition for ploughing in the early fall. Grasshop- 

 pers, akin to the " locusts " mentioned in the Bible, have fre- 

 quently done great damage to the crops, though not in the 

 middle of the larger valleys, where extensive areas have 

 been regularly cultivated. 



156. Droughts. It is estimated that twelve inches ol 

 water are sufficient to secure a good wheat crop in California 

 that is, distributed at the time and in the manner best adapted 

 to the growth of the grain. But the rains do not come at 

 such times and in such manners. They pour down in excess 

 in one month, and they fail to appear in the next. They may 

 be abundant either too early, or too late to do much good ; 

 and usually there is a partial failure when the rainfall does not 

 amount to sixteen inches, and when less than fourteen inches, 

 the failure is general. In the last twenty years there have 

 been seven of general failure in the Sacramento Valley, and 

 the proportion is still larger in the San Joaquin Valley, where 

 the rainfall is considerably less. 



The most disastrous drought in the history of the State was 

 that of the summer of 1863 and 1864, the two winters preced- 

 ing them having brought, together, only as much rain as 

 should have been brought by one winter. The result was 

 a complete failure of grain and grass everywhere, save on the 

 northern coast, and a great mortality among farm animals. 

 Out of 3,000,000 horses, neat cattle, and sheep, in the State, 

 more than 800,000 died by starvation^. The southern coast 

 suffered most severely, and in some counties two-thirds of all 

 their neat cattle died. 



