PHYSICAL AND CLIMATIC SETTING 17 



to hay, except alfalfa which in most places rests 

 from January to March; evergreen fruits, oranges, 

 lemons, olives and many other semi-tropicals, ripen 

 their fruits; all northern fruits awaken from a short 

 dormancy to bloom from January to March and 

 ripen from June to November; all vegetables, except 

 those counted tender, such as beans, melons and to- 

 matoes, from an early start in the rainy season may 

 come twice to edibility before the close of it. The 

 term rainy season does not mean that rains are con- 

 tinuous. In fact, they are often lighter and more 

 intermittent than is desirable and, therefore, irriga- 

 tion is frequently called for in some of the nine 

 months as well as during the dry season. 



4. As the rainy season is the chief period of plant 

 growth, so it is also the best time for field work. 

 Even harvesting of hay and early grains is largely 

 accomplished before the dry season begins on June 

 1 and harvesting and sun-curing of late fruits is 

 done after the rainy season begins on September 

 1. Thus California farmers have no closed season and 

 need have no idle days except when rains are ac- 

 tually falling in their own localities, for the oc- 

 currence of rain is not widely synchronous and the 

 actual number of rainy days varies in different parts 

 of the State. The annual average number of days 

 on which rains fell for sixty-two years in San Fran- 

 cisco (which is approximately an average for the 

 State) is sixty ^seven, while in parts of California 

 producing the greatest amount of crops the number 

 is much less. With so few rainy days, with no ground 



