pete with the western parts of New York or^ Lake Ontario. 

 You have all tieard of the famous wheat of (Jenesce, Wiicre 

 the hind is more fertile tiian in any part of (5reat Britain ; 

 and I learned that they are layina the land down to grass, 

 because tliey ean not atVord to grow wheat. Asa remedy for 

 this state of thing's, ihey are esVahiishing agricultural socie- 

 ties in the dilVerent states, ani<*'the legislature is providing 

 funds to support these societies, and for the ditTu>inn of knowl- 

 edge. The central society is in Albany, and to it the dilfur- 

 ent branches send reports. The Legishiture publishes these 

 in one VauM. volume, and circulates 20, 00:) copies gratuitously 

 tiiroiiono'i! /he sta/es. This central society asked me to give 

 their annual address at Syracuse, ami a course of lectures 

 before the Lesix/a/ure at Albany. Tliese lectures are to 

 form a part of this year's report ; and tiie Legislature has 

 resoUed to print an additional 21), 000 copies, making 40,000 

 altogether, and to circulate thcra gratuitously through the sev- 

 eral states. 



Let us now come to anotlicr point of great importance, and 

 to which you would perhaps like me to advert, namely, agri- 

 culture in America. What influence will the growth of w heat 

 in tiie states have upon us, or what influence is the progress 

 agriculture consequent on this great desire for improvement, 

 likely to have upon tliest;ite of agriculture in Great Britain ? 

 In New Brunswick, New England, and New York, the growth 

 of wheat has almost ceased ; and it i, gradually receding fur- 

 ther and further westward. Now, when 1 tell you this, you 

 will sec that what I believe to be the case, is really the case — 

 that it will not be very long before America will be unable — 

 in fac the United States are unable now — to supply us with 

 wheat in any large quantity. If we could bring Indian corn 

 into general use, we might get plenty of it ; but I do not 

 thinli tiiat the United St^ites need be any bugbear to you. 

 I believe the great source of competition you will have to 

 contend with is the Baltic and the countries on the Iwrders 

 of the Black Sea. Now. in regard to the other point, namely, 

 what effect will the desire for improvement in agriculture 

 have upon the agriculture of this country, it ought to stiniu- 

 late us to so still greater exertions. Sure I am, that with 

 proper exertions we will always keep ah^ad of them. There is 

 as good blood in this country as ever went out of it. I hope 

 English and Scotch heads and hearts will not become lan- 

 guid and dull on a matter of such moment as this, but that 

 we will continue to beat them, as 1 am sure from what I have 

 seen, that we are able. What the Americans are able to do 

 well, we ought to do better. (The learned Professor sat 

 down nmid great applause.) 



This address furnishes food for much serious reflec- 

 tion ; and if it do not prompt our friends to make 

 greater efforts for the advancement of American agri- 

 culture, we shall be both disappointed and mortilied. 

 In our next we shall review it at length. VVc have 

 put the price of t.hig journal at a mere nominal sum, 

 that all may read it. 



STATE AND PROSPECTS OP AGRICULTtJRE IN 

 CALIFORNIA. 



Much as has been written of California, yet but little 

 is at present known of her agricultural character and 

 capabilities. This matter has in a great measure 

 been lost sight of, and yet it is a question of the 

 highest importance to the welfare of this new State. 

 Her surface may be covered with gold, and yet she 

 can never become an independent and flourishing, or 

 even a wealthy State, unless her soil is adapted to 

 agricultural purposes. Without this, California will 

 be but a poor dependent npon the older States — her 

 population unsettled — enriching others at her own 

 expense. It is with much pleasure we are enabled 

 to give the following letter from an old friend, and 

 we have no doubt it will be read with interest. 



California— Its Agricultural Prospects— Its Soils— The Gold 



Region— Its Supposed Width. 

 It requires no ordinary amount of courage, I was going to 

 say etfrontery, to undertake to write and pronounce opinions 

 on a question so unsettled as the agricultural capabilities of 

 California. Those who have heretofore given forth their 



dicta to the world, either in official reports or in books for 

 sale, have too often had the mortilication of finding them- 

 selves licid up to ridicule, in Calilornia, for the gross errors 

 witii which their statements abound. The chief cause of the 

 errors that have been honestly committed, have arisen from 

 the want of correct data on which to form correct conclusions. 

 The population of northe n California are immigrants '' but 

 of yesterday." and know very little of the strange country in 

 which they find thcmsel ^es — a country in which llio seasons 

 vary so much as almost to persuade one to adopt the theory 

 of ttie natives — that the Yankees are a wonderful people, 

 they have brought a new climate with them to California. 



Last spring, a year ago, " the oldest inhaljitnnt" pitched his 

 tent in this city, began clearing away the under-growth. To- 

 day we have the certain experience of one year and a half. 

 The two seasons difler from each other so widely as to pass 

 for different climates. Had you asked this " oldest inhabit- 

 ant" about the truth of the stories afloat, tliat Sacramento 

 valley was subject to inundation, he would have told you that 

 it was contrary to his experience ; he vvoidd have told yon 

 that he passed the winter previous at the Fork, and this 

 land was above the highest flood ; and had you made all tiie 

 inquiries that I did, you would doubtless have done as I did 

 — go to bed, after looking at the rising waters. You would 

 not believe, on the evidence before you, that in a single 

 night the waters of a single river could flood so broad a val- 

 ley to the heighth of your bedstead. But, contrary to the 

 experience of " the oldest inhabitant," the floods came, and 

 in one night the whole valley of the Sacramento, with the 

 exception of a few isolated spots, was one continuous sheet 

 of water. Had you asked this "oldest inhabitant" about the 

 climate, he would have told you that the average tempera- 

 ture was over 100° during the summer last past, and he pre- 

 sumed it would be so this — sometimes running up as high as 

 128 ° in the shade. He would have told you that there were 

 no rains from March to November, except a slight shower in 

 June and another shower about the middle of October — and 

 that it was a very sickly town. Had you compared his state- 

 ments with your own experience for the present year, you 

 would have found them totally incorrect. You would have 

 found the heat never rising above 109 ° in the shade. You 

 would have found the deaths less, in proportion to the num- 

 ber of inhabitants, than at home. You W'ould have experi- 

 enced no shower in June, but a heavy and continuous rain, 

 like the commencement of the rainy season in September. 



In May, you would have said there could be no agricul- 

 culture, for the flood of that month would drown out all the 

 seeds that should have been in the ground a month or more, 

 and yet in August, you might have said that you had never 

 eaten tomatoes so rich as tiiose grow^n in this valley. In no 

 country in the world has corn, potatoes, onions, beets, tur- 

 nips, radishes, valparis (Valparaiso) squashes, reached a 

 higher perfection, or exhibited a more luxurious growth, than 

 in this valley, so far as one can judge from the specimens 

 brought to market. And the wild grapes, too ; no country 

 can bo.ast of more luxurious growth, or a more nutritious food 

 for cattle, than the wild grape of California. The yield of 

 wheat is most prolific. 



The upshot of my own observations (and you must bear 

 in mind that they are the observation of only a single year,) 

 are, that those spots and portions of California susceptible of 

 cultivation, grow all the above named agricultural produc- 

 tions to a higher state of perfection than I have ever before 

 seen them. But how large a portion of California is suceep- 

 tible of cultivation, can only be determined by the experi- 

 ence of several years. The system of cultivation, too, must 

 be determined by a long scries of experiments. Tiie heavy 

 plows used in our clay lands are not wanted in California. 

 Liglit plows, something after the fashion of the gang plow, 

 is all that is required to scratch over tiie surface of the ground 

 to prepare it for holding the seed. The lo(jse character of the 

 earth for several feel deep, allows the roots to penetrate to 

 an unusual depth, on their own motion, while the peculiar 

 nature of the soil and the c.imate causes the deep plowed 

 earth to dry up and become unproductive. In planting or 

 sowing, regard must be had to spreading out vegetation, so as 

 to cover the whole surface of the ground with a shade, other- 

 wise the sun will parch it up and your crop will be spoiled. 



You will see by these brief hints, that the system of culti- 

 vation to be pursued in Califirnia, must be entirely different 

 from our previously conceived notion*. And then, too, the 

 chemical combinations of the soils are so extraordinary as to 

 suggest the propriety of placing agricultural fdiemistry at the 

 head of the sciences to be taught in California. 



At the risk of being tedious, I will add something of the 



