134 RURAL CALIFORNIA 



barley endured longer in such surplusage; in fact, 

 when wheat declined below local needs and wheat 

 ships practically disappeared from our harbors, barley 

 advanced in production. From a local point of view, 

 though wheat can claim the greater aggregate of 

 value for all the years together, barley came in 1917, 

 owing to volume of product and war prices combined, 

 to reach a single year's value of product which ex- 

 ceeded the value of any single year's wheat. These 

 elements in barley production justify the following 

 statistical review, which can be compared with the 

 similar record for wheat given on page 128 : 



Barley Farm Valise 



1850 9,712 



1852 2,973,734 



1860 4,415,426 



1870 8,783,490 $ 7,230,440 



1880 12,463,561 8,979,349 



1890 17,548,386 11,327,441 



1900 25,149,325 6,388,153 



1910 46,441,954 25,575,000 



1915 39,440,000 24,453,000 



1916 33,320,000 31,654,000 



1917 39,150,000 46,980,000 



1918 34,320,000 39.468,000 



1919 * 30,000,000 42,306,000 



California figured only once as the leading wheat 

 state of the Union, while she took the leadership in 

 barley before 1860 and maintained it for half a 

 century. In 1909 the leadership went to Minne- 

 sota and in 1915 North Dakota advanced above Min- 

 nesota, making California third in the barley list; 

 but 1916 restored the leadership to California and 



1 Scant rainfall in 1920 reduced the crop, nearly 7 per cent, 

 and low prices reduced the total value one-third. 



