136 RURAL CALIFORNIA 



was shown from San Jose Valley of which it was 

 said: "This sample represents a crop of 965 bushels 

 from less than five acres." As this would be 200 

 bushels to the acre, we do not pass on its credibility. 

 At the same fair another sample was shown "repre- 

 senting a crop of 53,000 pounds-from 12 acres, grown 

 by Madame Scoofy of Sonora." As this would be 

 about ninety bushels to the acre, it is reasonable, for 

 such a crop was frequently reported at that date and 

 since then also. 



At the same fair there were mentioned stools of 

 wheat and barley "with 150 and 200 mammoth stalks 

 from one root the product of single seeds/' which is 

 also credible. The free-stooling of barley during the 

 long winter growing season is matched by the suc^ 

 cession of volunteering. In 1856 a committee of 

 judges for the State fair made this memorandum: 

 "Near Santa Clara on the road to Alviso we saw a 

 field of fifty acres of volunteer barley. This is the 

 fifth crop from a single sowing and the yield this 

 year has averaged 43 bushels to the acre. It has 

 received no special care." It is difficult now to ap- 

 preciate the sensations of pioneer farmers who came 

 from parts of the country where barley was aban- 

 doned because it required the best land and best care 

 to get even 20 bushels to the acre. Here was a man 

 reaping annually more than twice that much barley 

 from seed sowed five years before and the field had 

 .never been given anything but a little harrowing since 

 it was sown. California quickly became the chief 

 producer of the grain in the Union, the product in 



