168 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 
rains be light; but when the rains are abundant, the late-sown 
fields are the best. There is always danger that small grain 
in Califernia, if sown early, will get more rain than it wants. 
The same barley is sown early and late; our farmers do not 
know any thing of “winter barley” as distinct from “spring 
barley”—a division familiar in the Atlantic states. 
The harvest precedes that of wheat ; commencing in the Sac- 
ramento Basin early in June, and in the coast valleys late in 
the same month. The grain is all cut with reaping-machines, 
and is never housed, but is threshed on the field, with or with- 
out stacking. Sometimes it is bound; frequently it is gath- 
ered in a tight wagon-bed, and hauled into a pile in the centre 
of the field, where it remains until the threshing-machine can 
come. The rarity of rain from June to October renders this 
course pretty safe; though it has happened, on one or two 
occasions during the last ten years, that grain in the field has 
been injured by September rains. The same land is cultivated 
year after year in barley; and there has been very little, if 
any, decrease in crops during the last ten years. 
When men are hired to plough and sow by the job, they 
charge three dollars per acre; reaping and binding cost two 
dollars per acre; threshing costs from one-twelfth to one-tenth 
of the grain, and sacks holding one hundred pounds cost fif- 
teen cents apiece. The common yield is from thirty to thirty- 
five bushels per acre, and fifty per cent. more than the average 
barley-crop in the Eastern states. In 1856, according to the 
reports of the county assessors, the average yield of barley in 
Alameda county was 45 bushels; in Sonoma, 39; in Marin, 39; 
in Sacramento, 26; in Amador, 34; in Santa Cruz, 30. In 1857, 
according to the same authorities, the average yield in Alame- 
da was 40 bushels; Sonoma, 25; Marin, 39; Sacramento, 24; 
Amador, 25; and Santa Craz, 30. In 1859, Alameda reported 
an average of 29 bushels; Contra Costa, 30; Napa, 25; San 
Joaquin, 17; Sonoma, 40; Santa Cruz, 80; Yolo, 10; Sacra- 
mento, 25. In 1860, the assessors’ reports show an average 
of 30 bushels for Alameda, 40 for Butte, 40 for Amador, 35 
