AGRICULTURE. 233 



of potatoes about 1 20 pounds every potato weighing three 

 pounds or more. They were from Pajaro Valley. The 

 larger specimens were a foot long, four inches wide, and 

 two and a half inches thick. 



The soil at Bodega and Tomales, the chief potato dis- 

 tricts, is a light, sandy loam, and the mists from the ocean 

 supply the abundant moisture which the plant loves. The po- 

 tato district of Sacramento County is on the banks of the 

 sloughs of the Sacramento River, near its j unction with the 

 San Joaquin. The soil is very light, warm, rich loam, and the 

 vegetables grown there are among the earliest in the market. 

 The Californian potatoes are mealy, sound, and palatable ; yet 

 in the opinion of many travelers, inferior in flavor to those 

 grown east of the Rocky Mountains. The potato-disease has 

 never made its appearance in this State. 



The immediate coast, at least north of Point Conception, is 

 too cold for the sweet potato, which thrives, however, in the 

 Sacramento Valley, especially in the lowland about the head 

 of Suisun Bay. The true sweet potato has grown here to 

 weigh fifteen pounds much larger than any I have ever seen 

 in the States east of the Mississippi. They lack the mealiness 

 and delicate taste which makes the Eastern sweet potato so 

 palatable in its season. 



166. Hay. As most of our farm animals are never 

 brought under shelter, and never fed at a trough, rack, or 

 stack, the proportion of hay cut here is much less than in the 

 Atlantic States and Europe probably not more than one-half 

 as much. There every horse and cow must have hay through- 

 out the winter, and many of them through the summer ; while 

 here very few cattle are fed with hay at any season of the 

 year, and horses not employed are usually turned out into the 

 open plain. The hay of Ohio is cut in cultivated fields from 

 tame grasses ; that of California is made of wild oats and in- 

 digenous grasses, grown in the open valleys, or of wheat, bar- 

 ley, or oats, cut while they are green, usually when the grain 



