142 RURAL CALIFORNIA 



much on corn, and probably imparted this view to 

 their early American visitors, for they also largely 

 avoided corn. The first accounts of farming, after 

 the gold rush, say little of corn, and the very first 

 shows of produce were rich in tall and productive 

 barley, wheat, and oats, but not in corn. Neverthe- 

 less corn was grown, for it is reported that in 1856, 

 "many corn crops at El Monte, Los Angeles County, 

 average 80 bushels to the acre and as high as 120 

 bushels to the acre has been raised." In that year 

 the product of the State was estimated at 165,464 

 bushels, while wheat was 2,937,236 bushels, barley 

 3,229,230 bushels, and oats 364,420. 



Soon afterward on the basis of good yields in 

 widely separated places, there arose quite an inter- 

 est in corn and large expectations were indulged in 

 from 1857 for a few years and "yields of 80 to 120 

 bushels of shelled corn per acre from plants which 

 attained a height of fourteen to twenty feet and 

 carried ears nine feet from the ground" were re- 

 ported in the records of the time. Thus, California 

 can claim a share in the "tall corn" sensations of the 

 same period which the Middle West enjoyed. How- 

 ever,, even as early as 1858 the limitations in corn 

 were quite clearly discerned, for in that year it was 

 written: "There is not a doubt but that there are 

 many fine corn-growing districts within the limits 

 of California that are as yet unknown, so far as 

 practical experiment has demonstrated their appro- 

 priateness to the culture of the product." 



That suitability for corn depends on local condi- 



